Ensuring tax revenue
Ensuring tax revenue for society is our most important task. We give attention to the effortlessness and reliability of taxation. We acquire and use tax data comprehensively. We tackle the grey economy and thereby eliminate unhealthy competition. By improving our ways of working, we also secure the accrual of tax revenue in the future.
Our success in the two strategic goals – creating a positive customer experience and achieving fair taxation – helps us achieve the third strategic goal of ensuring tax revenue for society.
These comprehensive activities contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: peace, justice and strong institutions.
Tackling the grey economy
In 2024, we carried out 612 grey economy tax audits. They led to the imposition of a total of EUR 125 million in taxes and punitive tax increases. The accuracy of the audit targets was high: around 88 per cent of the audits (2023: 93%) led to imposing taxes and around 80% (2023: 86%) were forwarded for the consideration of a report of an offence.
In the supervision of the filing of VAT returns, we processed 3,309 returns (2023: 3,400). Based on these, EUR 19.8 million in taxes were levied (2023: EUR 9.5 million) and 36 cases were forwarded for the consideration of a report of an offence (2023: 17). In addition, we prevented unjustified registrations in the prepayment and VAT registers and removed inappropriate entries. In total, there were 2,760 such cases (2023: 2,437).
When controlling cases of tax refund fraud, we rejected the withholding of persons responsible for bankrupt companies and their related parties amounting to EUR 2.0 million (2024: 1.5 million) and processed other cases involving the grey economy related to matters such as the misuse of the Incomes Register. The number of cases processed was 264. When controlling employer contributions, we investigated unjustified pay reported by employers, which had not actually been paid (695 notifications, 38% accuracy).
In the control of excise duties, we processed refund applications and made tax decisions, which led to levying EUR 4.6 million in taxes. We also monitored a total of 680 (2023: 1,005) operators in industries such as the taxi, restaurant, construction and festival industries.
Grey Economy Information Unit
The Finnish Tax Administration’s Grey Economy Information Unit assesses the impact and prevention of different grey economy phenomena and the effectiveness of legislation. The unit also prepares reports on phenomena to support the operations of control and licensing authorities.
Our reports on the impact of companies linked to organised crime on business activities as well as the grey economy caused by short-lived companies also estimated the size of the tax gap caused by the grey economy.
We also examined the impact of the responsible persons and their other companies on the management of a limited liability company’s obligations and the risk of the grey economy, and how the arrangements on the financial administration of limited liability companies affect their management of tax liability. During the year, we also published reports on trading with receipts and real-time tax audits that involved a simultaneous pre-trial investigation by the police.
In total, 150 reports on different phenomena, statements and other information provision tasks were completed during the year.
The unit produces digital compliance reports as an information service to support the tasks of public authorities. The use of the obligation compliance reporting service expanded to support new tasks of the public authorities and the service was used in 38 public authority tasks by the end of the year. More than 700,000 obligation compliance reports were commissioned.
Coordinated by the Grey Economy Information Unit, the joint situational picture feature of the authorities on the grey economy and economic crime maintained an up-to-date situational picture. In total, 63 information products were published on the Grey economy and economic crime website over the year.
The preparation of the strategy and action plan for tackling the grey economy and economic crime for the period 2024–2027 began in May 2024. The strategy and action plan were prepared by a cross-administrative preparatory group led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The Government adopted the strategy and action plan for tackling the grey economy and economic crime on 19 December 2024.
During the new programme period, particular emphasis will be placed on safeguarding the operating conditions of the public authorities involved in combating the grey economy. The projects included in the action plan support the strategic objectives of the Tax Administration to tackle the grey economy and eliminate unfair competition. The projects remove obstacles to combating the grey economy and economic crime, for example by developing analysis capabilities, competence and legislation. In addition, the project to develop registration procedures for foreign individuals is important at the societal level.
Metrics and goals
We monitor our successes and develop our operations using the following metrics and goals:
| Metric | Actual 2020 | Actual 2021 | Actual 2022 | Actual 2023 | Goal 2024 | Actual 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of taxes paid at the right time (%) 1) | 91 | 93 | 93 | 93 | ≥ 93 | 93 |
| VAT gap (%) 2) | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - |
1) The actual figure for 2020 does not include car taxes and excise duties transferred from Finnish Customs.
2) The VAT gap has been estimated using a calculation method developed by the Tax Administration and based on tax control results.
Highlights from 2024: Transparency and cooperation are part of legislative work
The transparency of legislation requires that key stakeholder groups are consulted when drafting laws. The Government has issued joint guidelines for consulting stakeholders.
We are actively involved in various legislative change projects. As taxation is very broadly related to different societal activities, many different legislative projects are also related to the activities of the Tax Administration.
The Tax Administration uses a centralised procedure in matters related to providing statements to legislative drafting. When the Tax Administration is consulted for a statement on a matter, the request is first directed to the Tax Administration’s Legal Unit, which compiles the Tax Administration’s shared view on the matter. From the Legal Unit, the statement matter is then submitted to the Director General, who decides on the case. The procedure ensures that the different units get to present their views and that a single uniform statement is issued from the Tax Administration.
The statement procedure examines the financial and other impacts of the proposal on the Tax Administration’s activities. The statement may also propose changes to the wording of the provisions so that their application is as clear as possible from the viewpoint of the Tax Administration.
In 2024, we issued a statement on 78 cases concerning legislation, decrees or other public authority instructions.
The Tax Administration has the right to issue regulatory provisions that specify legislation (Tax Administration decisions). These provisions can be issued in matters carefully specified in the law and they can be used to specify the claims of an act, for example in the implementation of information provision obligations. The provisions are prepared openly, and the instructions concerning legislative drafting are followed in issuing them, for example, when consulting stakeholder cooperation working groups. Statements issued by stakeholders are mostly public.