Taxation in Finland is carried out by the State of Finland, mainly through the Finnish Tax Administration, an agency of the Ministry of Finance. Finnish Customs and the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, Trafi, also collect taxes. Taxes collected are distributed to the Government, municipalities, church, and the Social Insurance Institution, Kela.
Video Taxation in Finland
Taxation by type
Income tax
The total Finnish income tax includes the income tax dependable on the net salary, employee unemployment payment, and employer unemployment payment. The tax rate increases very progressively rapidly at 13 ke/year (from 25% to 48%) and at 29 ke/year to 55% and eventually rearches 67% at 83 ke/year, while little decreases at 127 ke/year to 65%, 2018. The middle-income person will get 44 euros from every 100 euros the employer puts on the work. The GP will then again get from every extra 100 euros that the employer puts on the work only 33 euros. Some sources do not include the employer unemployment payment, for instance Veronmaksajat -organisation.
Earned income taxes
Earned gross income is taxed with a progressive state tax (tax brackets 6.5% - 31.75%) and proportional communal taxes paid to municipalities (16.5% - 22.5%, average 19.17%) and parishes (1.00% - 2.00%, average 1.34%). The permanent residents of Finland also pay health insurance contributions, a medical care fee (1.19%) and a daily allowance contribution (0.82%). There is an earned income tax credit for local taxes, making them slightly progressive despite their fixed rate.
The tax-like mandatory insurance fees are deducted from net pay. The employee's pension and unemployment insurance fees have rates varying according to the person's age but they are usually at 4.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
Total income tax, including the mandatory insurance fees, was 29.8% for an average yearly income of 37,400 EUR in 2010.
The tax authority collects income taxes from each paycheck, and then pays the difference between tax liability and taxes paid as tax rebate or collects as tax arrears afterward.
Indirect income taxes
There are also indirect tax-like mandatory social security contributions and insurance fees paid by the employer in addition to the gross income. The social security contribution is 2.12% of gross income. The pension and unemployment insurance fees depend on the age of the employee and the size of the employer, they are usually 18.3% and 3.2% of gross income, respectively.
Dividend and capital gains taxes
The income from dividends, rents, and capital gains are taxed with capital income tax. In 2017 the capital income is taxed at a fixed rate of 30% or 34% for income that exceeds 30,000 euro.
Limited companies have a different taxation depending on if they are listed or not. Public companies have 15% of their dividends tax-exempt. The effective dividend tax rate is thus 25.5% - 28.9%.
However, taxation of the dividends from non-listed companies is much lower. As much as 75% of these dividends is tax-exempt up until 150,000 EUR. This still includes a condition that the dividend must be under or equal to 8% of the mathematical value of the stock (portion of net assets for a single share). 75% of the part that exceeds the 8% boundary will be taxed instead as earned income. If an individual gets more than 150,000 EUR in dividends from non-listed limited companies, the tax-exempt percentage will only be 15% for the amount that exceeds 150,000 EUR. The effective tax rate for a dividend that does not exceed 8% of the value of a stock will be 7.5% - 8.5%. Due to the effect of net assets, dividends of debted private companies will usually have their dividends taxed as earned income.
Corporate taxes
The corporate income tax rate is 20.0%. The corporate tax was fully paid as dividend tax before 2004, but because of neutrality requirements of the EU, the tax credits allowed for dividends are now more complex. Corporate tax was lowered from 24.5% to 20.0% in January 2014.
Property tax
Municipal property taxes are low, since municipalities mostly meet their funding needs via direct income taxes and state subsidies. Tax rates are higher for leisure properties like summer cottages. Property taxes are levied annually on present market value. General rates are 0.60-1.35%, 0.32-0.75% on regular housing and 0.50-1.00% on leisure properties.
There is a 4% property transfer tax for property, and 1.6% for stock and housing cooperative shares. First-time home buyers home are exempt.
VAT and excise taxes
VAT is levied at a standard rate of 24% (January 2013), and two reduced rates of 14% on food, restaurant services, catering services and animal feed, and 10% on books, pharmaceutical products, services creating opportunities for physical exercise, passenger transportation and accommodation.
Excise taxes are in place for alcohol, tobacco, sweets, lotteries, insurances, transport fuels and automobiles (2011). The motor vehicle tax is substantial. As a rule, permanent residents cannot drive foreign-registered cars in Finland. Persons with permanent residence outside Finland may drive foreign-registered car in Finland for six months, or up to 18 months if residence abroad is separately proven to Customs.
Pharmacies pay only the excise tax from their yearly income; no VAT is levied on medications. There is a tax credit for pharmacies that keep subsidiary pharmacies (sivuapteekki). The aim of this policy is to support keeping pharmacies in sparsely populated regions.
Pension fees
The mandatory pension fees are paid directly to the pension insurance company selected by the employer or entrepreneur. The pension fees total 23% of the gross income (2011), usually 4.7% is deducted from gross income and the rest of the 23% is paid by the employer in addition to the gross income.
The voluntary pension insurance fees or transfers to a personal pension account are credited in earned income taxation up to 5000 EUR per year.
According to Finnwatch 60-70% (EUR37 billion) of Finnish pension funds are invested in the tax havens. Political parties have different agendas in respect to tax havens.
Church tax
Taxes are collected from members of the two official churches, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and Finnish Orthodox Church, and two country-wide Lutheran parishes; the German parish in Finland and Olaus Petri parish for citizens of Sweden living in Finland. The tax rates vary from 1% to 2% of earned income. Persons that are not members of these churches are exempted from paying. A small percentage, 2.55% as of 2011, of corporate taxes is also distributed to parishes. Corporates pay church tax regardless of corporations' religious status.
Maps Taxation in Finland
Publicity of income taxes
Even when information of earnings and the taxation procedure of individual persons and companies are not public, the amount of taxes carried for each person and company is public information. Tax Administration authority is required to submit information for free if request is targeted. Larger records are submitted for journalistic purposes. Capital income and earned income, are both public information, while taxation of dividends from unlisted limited company is not.
Taxation of non-residents
Anyone who has arrived in Finland and stayed longer than 6 months will become, from Tax Administrator's view, a resident. The residents' worldwide income is subject to Finnish tax, so that no distinction exists between the source country. Non-residents are subjected only to taxation of Finnish-sourced income.
ID number and Tax number
Persons working in Finland for a short period can get their Finnish personal ID at the tax office. The Finnish Tax Administration is entitled to enter information into the Population Register System and distribute identity codes jointly with Local Register Offices if the matter concerns foreigners who arrive for temporary periods, i.e. less than one year to work in Finland. ID requires following information entered to the system: Full name, Date of birth, Sex, Place of birth, Address, Citizenship, Native language and Occupation.
In association of measures against grey economy in the construction industry, A new Act governing the mandatory Tax Numbers and the public Register of Tax Numbers was adopted in 2012. At the moment mandatory Tax Numbers are issued for construction-industry workers only. The Individual Tax Number does not reveal the individual's age, sex or date of birth. The number doesn't change when a worker moves on to work for another employer or to work at another construction site.
Withholding tax for foreign wage earners with special expertise
Under the Act on Withholding Tax for Foreign Wage Earners with Special Expertise (1995), a withholding tax of 35% is levied instead of State income tax on earned income and communal tax. The withholding tax is applied to foreign employees under the following conditions:
- the individual becomes resident in Finland at the beginning of the period of employment to which the Act applies
- the pecuniary salary for this employment is at least 5,800 euros a month during the total period of employment to which the Act applies
- his tasks require special expertise
- he is not a Finnish national and he has not been resident in Finland in the five years preceding the year in which this employment began.
A taxpayer is deemed to be a foreign expert for a maximum of 48 months from the beginning of the employment.
Officials of the European Union
Salaries or grants paid by the European Union bodies, such as European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki, are tax-free in Finland and do not need to be reported to the Finnish Tax Administration or Finnish social security. Employees of European Union bodies may bring a car to Finland without paying the Finnish car tax.
See also
- Economy of Finland
References
Further reading
Colliander, Anders (April 2009). Taxation in Finland 2009 (PDF). Ministry of Finance publications. 7/2009. Ministry of Finance. ISBN 978-951-804-932-9.
External links
- Ministry of Finance
- Finnish Tax Administration
- Findicator - Taxes and tax-like payments 1975-, ratio to GDP
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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