Tax Day: Finland big on transparency
As it does every year in November, Finland has published the tax data of everyone who earned over 100,000 euros in the previous tax year. This means that the information about how much income well-known personalities have and how much tax they have to pay is available to everyone. What are the advantages of waiving tax secrecy?
Success is nothing to be ashamed of
The published tax data has great social value, Kaleva emphasises:
“Openness increases transparency in society and can prevent corruption and crime. Of course, income and wealth are also a private matter, but at the same time the transparency of tax data has significant social value. Reasonably transparent tax data makes it possible to assess how wealth is created in Finland and how to be economically successful here. Finns should learn to accept that it's possible to get rich with honestly earned income or wealth. Success is nothing to be ashamed of.”
There are also weaknesses
Lapin Kansa sees advantages and disadvantages:
“An open tax system in which the public interest takes precedence over private interests makes it easier to keeps tabs on those in power and lessens suspicions of tax evasion. At the same time, it can uncover abuses in taxation, which the public can then push to have eliminated. ... One disadvantage is that not all the tax information that is made public is socially relevant. At worst, it is a form of voyeurism that leads above all to resentment, envy, bitterness and mistrust, of which Finland already has enough. But even if Tax Day has its weaknesses, there is no reason to reduce transparency.”