Ensuring tax revenue in the 2030’s – the Tax Administration’s objectives to the next Government Programme

In Finland, the tax gap, i.e. the amount of unpaid statutory taxes, is at minimum 3–5%. The gap is not big in international comparison but there is a risk that it might grow. An increase of one percentage point in the tax gap means around €830 million in tax revenue.

The main source of public income is tax revenue. In 2025, the Tax Administration revealed unfiled taxes and unfounded deductions of more than €1 billion in total. The tax gap can be stopped from growing, but it requires changes to the Administrative Procedure Act and the data access rights, for example.

The Tax Administration wishes to introduce two themes and five objectives to the next Government Programme.

Financial security and balance

1. Corporate taxation must be brought into the digital age. To do away with paper forms, we need to create corporate taxation that is based on standardised financial data: accounting data, additional accounting data and corporations’ invoice data will be transferred in digital format to the Tax Administration by automation. Corporations’ higher-quality, more up-to-date financial data could help to stop the tax gap from growing. Higher-quality data will decrease the amount of additional administrative work in companies and especially in the public sector. In addition, the data would enable increased use of automation and thereby accelerate the processing of matters. The data received can also be used widely in other official reporting.
2. Legislation regarding public administration must be brought into the digital age. The binding character of e-services must be increased. Authorities’ decisions made by AI must be enabled. The use of AI in services and guidance would increase automation and allow us to transfer employees to control tasks, which in turn would increase tax revenue. It would also speed up customer service and help extend service hours.
3. We must do away with the mishmash of commuting expenses. The current deduction is laborious and susceptible to errors, and it creates an annual tax gap of around €100 million. The deduction needs to be changed in such a way that it complies with today’s working life and earnings models and reduces misuse and errors.

Making things difficult for organised financial crime

4. We need to boost the combating of the grey economy. Intensified collaboration between authorities and more clearly defined powers are needed. We need real-time collaboration with sufficient resources. We must prevent organised crime from accessing registers and from making use of legislative loopholes. When the new term of government begins, preparations for a programme to combat the grey economy and financial crime must be started.
5. Workers’ entry to Finland must be simplified. The identification process must be accelerated, and any overlap in authorities’ activities must be removed. Exploitation of labour immigration must be eliminated. Reforming of tax number legislation is needed. The Government Programme must clearly state the desired state as regards the registration of entry to Finland and the increased flexibility of services.        

Finland has a great future in digitalisation behind it. Our current solutions can no longer improve and enhance our activities to the extent required to ensure tax revenue in the 2030s.