Basis of our sustainability activities

Sustainability is part of our strategy

Sustainability and responsibility are integral parts of our strategic objectives of a positive customer experience, fair taxation and ensuring tax revenue.

The building of trust, working together and embracing new ways of working are the values that guide our activities. We develop our services in cooperation with our customers and stakeholders: we listen to our customers, aim to predict their needs, and respond to them. We act for the good of Finnish society in accordance with the central government’s shared principles. We play an active role in building and developing public services.

Our strategy and activities have a specific impact on the achievement of the four selected UN Sustainable Development Goals: decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); reduced inequalities (SDG 10); peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16); and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

To launch sustainability reporting on the current scale, we arranged a series of internal workshops on the strategy, our operations and the SDGs in the spring of 2021. We identified the UN Sustainable Development Goals that the Tax Administration can best promote through its activities.

In the next sections, we will discuss the achievement of the SDGs through our strategic goals. This year, we also raised one of our values – working together – as the fourth perspective alongside them.

Involvement of personnel in sustainability activities

In 2024, we focused especially on regularly highlighting responsibility and sustainability themes that are relevant to our personnel’s daily work through internal communications. We are fostering and building a sustainable work culture and employee experience.

Community spirit, environmental friendliness and diversity have been key themes visible in our daily work and events.

We promoted our community spirit through actions such as setting up the Tax Administration’s own flea market community, organising a joint May Day brunch organised through Teams, paying attention to the summer employees who came to work with us on our internal channels and publishing nature-themed summer photos taken by our employees. At the end of the year, we utilised crowdsourcing by providing the Tax Administration employees with the opportunity to highlight important successes from the past year. We highlighted topics related to nature and the environment. We raised awareness among our employees about the Sustainable Development Goals, Energy Savings Week and Earth Hour and discussed the topics. In connection with the Buy Nothing Day in November, we encouraged our customer service to reduce the use of paper in services. In February, we celebrated the Sámi culture and traditions.

During the year, we also highlighted the right of Finland-Swedes to use their mother tongue. Our translation team translates approximately 800 pages per translator annually. In addition, some translations are sent to an external translation agency, and many other employees also manage translation tasks alongside their other tasks. Over the year, we also raised awareness of equality and non-discrimination during Pride Week, among other things.

Highlights from 2024: Studying the significance of sustainability for our personnel

In 2024, we completed a thesis related to responsibility and sustainability in collaboration with a Master’s degree student at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the study was to engage one of our internal stakeholders, our personnel, to share their views on responsibility. The study examined which aspects of our responsibility are important and relevant for the personnel and what our personnel would like to learn more about. 10 interviewees and 329 respondents participated in the study.

The results highlighted both strengths and areas for development. Based on the study, the Tax Administration’s responsibility was considered important. Particular emphasis was placed on social and economic responsibility in the results of the interviews and the survey. Employee well-being and fair taxation emerged as key themes. The significance of equality was highlighted in the study both in pay between personnel and in the fair taxation of taxpayers. The findings of the study provide valuable information for developing our sustainability activities and support the organisation’s efforts towards more responsible and transparent operations.