1. The Tax Administration deploys IT
The use of IT at the Finnish Tax Administration started with the deployment of the first punched card machines.
The use of IT at the Finnish Tax Administration started with the deployment of the first punched card machines.
Thanks to the massive increase in IT adoption, the National Board of Taxes could collect information from different parties: employers, the Social Insurance Institution (KELA), pension and insurance institutions, and banks. This information no longer had to be collected from taxpayers – taxes could be implemented without bothering customers.
Electronic services were first used to collect data from companies and organisations. In 2007, tax cards could be made online, and in 2008, tax returns could also be submitted in electronic format.
The National Board of Taxes set the automation of taxation its strategic objective in the early 1990s. The idea was that the taxation of individual taxpayers would be as automated as possible. As a result of the VALMIS project, the Tax Administration replaced more than 70 data systems with a single solution.