Heavier taxation on sweets

The Finnish Finance Ministry has made a proposition on an additional tax on candy and sweets, sweetened soft drinks, chocolates and products containing cocoa taking effect by beginning of next year.

The proposition is based on the risen consumption of confectionery, obesity and deteriorating dental health becoming more common amongst the young during the past ten years and a similar tax was actually already in force in Finland between the years of 1926 and 1999.

This additional tax on sugar is estimated to bring in about 120 million more euros a year to the state budget, and also hopefully leading to decreased consumption of confectionery with it resulting in long term savings in dental and health care.

What I wonder here is, why only these items? Why not tax all un-healthy foods more? The higher consumption of junk-food must also have deteriorating effects on the health amongst the population. And why not lower the taxation of healthy foods?

Anyway, today is the car free day for the 11th time in Finland, a day people are encouraged to leave their car at home and use the public transports, go by bike or walk instead. According to what I’ve heard, today, in the city of Jyväskylä 3000 free bus tickets are handed out, and public bus fares are available at a reduced price in the capital region . This in order to encourage better health and exercise routines, as well as being more friendly to the environment.

Teachers missing table manners

With the economical downfall everything is done to try to save some money by cutback, both in companies, the state and municipalities.

It has so far been customary in Finland for the teacher's to eat with their pupils in the lunch room, at least when they are in an early age, a meal that has been a taxable benefit for the teachers, and thus considered as work as they have been advising and teaching their own class how to behave properly at the table and how to eat.

Now the city of Tampere has decided to cut back on the teacher's lunch benefits resulting in teachers having their lunch in the teachers lounge in future.

Well, I personally think they could do this more commonly, as the off-spring has only been corrected in faulty ways by teachers resulting in many disagreements home at the dinner table. Or the teachers should at least themselves be taught how to eat and hold a spoon properly!

Taxs list public

Yesterday last year’s tax results were made public and lists with people the biggest earners in each municipality were published on the Net.

I really wonder what use that is, more than make people envious and want more, or maybe it comes handy when blondes are looking for eligible bachelors. Must be every girl’s dream, having the official tax lists available, when hunting for a new husband.

This year the average tax return is about 600 Euros, and will be paid back on December 4^th directly into your bank account, depending on whether you have provided the authorities with your bank account number, or by a postal order by December the 10^th. Which will come good in handy for the Xmas shopping.

For those with back taxes, this year the average came to of 1600 Euros, and the sum will have to paid in two payments, one in December and the second on in February next year.

Pensions scare

Pensions have been a widely discussed issue in the media for some time now here in Finland.

This country seems to be owned by insurance companies as they own banks, real estate and they are also share holders in many companies. They also decide upon your pension as a part of it comes from them, the part counting from your work earnings converted into pension money so to speak.

Anyway, most of the big insurance companies have had extensive ad campaigns painting an exaggerated gloomy picture of the future and in fear of poverty when retiring many people have a monthly investment in a savings fund with an insurance company. That means to give your money to the disposal of the insurance company, money to be invest as they please and hopefully it will still be there for you and not lost, as so often happens in economics when the big boys and not to forget the big girls, are playing with somebody else’s money, when time is for retiring in maybe decades time from today.

Still according to Eläketurvakeskus, the Finnish National Centre for Pensions, the state pension funds have not vanished and the next generation of pensioners will have unmatched purchasing power compared to previous generations as the pensions already have surpassed the pensioners to receive over 60 percent of their salary compared to their last year at work. Is this not misleading of the public by the insurance companies just to make a few bucks?

The government is currently also reducing the taxes for pensioners by 3, 2 % by beginning of next year if I have got it correct. The 3, 2% tax reduction is only to be effective if you earn between 13.000 and 31.000 Euros per year. If you earn less it won’t affect you as much, but they say your taxes will still be reduced. Nobody seems to know how much yet though, but it is apparently to be presented during the parliamentary session today. Why are people with less income not the ones the tax reductions affects the most?

Anyway, the government is now counting how much they can afford to invest in senior citizens, as the amount of pensions as well as health care costs and care taking costs will be going up as a big generation will be retiring soon. Ten years ago 80% of citizens between the ages of 60-64 were retired compared to last years’ 59%.

Does this mean people are healthier or are they just afraid to retire? Or have the demands in the society become so much harsher that you are afraid to retire and enjoy life as you loose your identity that is who you are at work, not who you really are in your private life. Has life become that shallow that only your CV and working merits counts in the eyes of people and not how you act or how you are?

It is so much easier to be the executive of some corporation, the bank clerk or the all-knowing janitor instead of having your dear spouse bossing you around all day; your spouse does not listen to your opinions anyway. As what comes to respecting you, compared to your employees well wives and husbands probably know you better than you do yourself so is it that we get what we deserve when retiring and this is what we really are afraid of and not the money we might have in pension?

Tax returns and tap water

If you have paid too little taxes you are to make your first installment payment at latest tomorrow, with the second to be paid in January next year but if you are getting money back from having paid too much you won’t get them until the day after tomorrow, that is if you have a filed a bank account with the tax authorities. If you have not informed them about your account number you will have to wait until mid month before your get your tax-returns. This might seem like a minor glitch, but if one spouse get s tax return the day after the day the other spouse is to pay, and if you have not got enough money to pay before you get the return then what do you do?

Anyway, it seems strange that three towns have so far this year suffered from contaminated tap water by E-Coli bacteria. There was one case in Vihti in October this year when 8 dead squirrels were found in the water tower earlier this spring and now there is a current case in Nokia, you know the city where the mobile phone company comes from and Nokia car tyres are manufactured. Also in Jyväskylä in September the citizens were also told to boil their tap water before using if for several minutes in order for it to be potable.

How can semi purified waste water that is not fully purified get mixed into the purified chloride drinking water? As for what I know about drinking water and waste water systems they are normally here in the Nordic countries built separate from each other, and the drinking water facilities’ intake are not even in the near vicinity of the waste water plants and the systems normally just are able to run one way, not be reversed just to prevent cases like this. The two different plants purify their water in their own system and normally in quite the opposite sides of the towns.

Having lived outside the Nordic countries I have acquired the here often considered strange habit of having a separate water filter to our drinking water. We have laughed a lot about it among our friends many times but with these statistics for recurrent epidemics around the country with harmful bacteria getting into the drinking water, I might even consider switching into bottled mineral water. It will be more expensive, and there are also bacteria in the bottle waters but guess their amount is smaller than might be in tap water.

Twice so far I have been warned about tap water, once my whites in the washing machine got all black because of some residue was flushed from the water pipes, the other time the water pipe had burst because of the cold weather, which also seems strange as they are normally dug that deep into the ground that they do not burst from frost. It might be the wear and tear of time that has been working at it, but it must be less expensive to change into new water pipes instead of having people die of the infections it causes, especially among the young, elderly and ill.

Creamy stuff

The government budget talks have now agreed upon a cutback on the VAT on food in October 2009 with 5 % of the current rate of today’s 17 %.

I really wonder if that makes any difference to the consumer retail prices anyway, the shops and supermarkets tend to hike the prices up before such changes in order to be able to afford the prices going down with the tax reduction. Another thing that recently has been up for discussion is the origin of food, what it contains and where it comes from as many producers just refine what they have bought elsewhere and mostly not even locally or nationally.

Just recently one of the Finnish dairy manufacturers had to withdraw one type of food cream, which is a cream with lower percentage of fat than average cream, from the supermarkets. This cream in question was not even real cream made out of cow’s milk but instead a concoction made of vegetal fats with preservatives and other additives making it cream-like and said to be healthier than ordinary cream as it contains more vegetable oil, thus also containing more unsaturated and healthier fatty acids.

The reason for the manufacturer being obliged to withdraw the creamy stuff was that the guar gum used as emulsifier in the product was discovered containing too high levels of dioxin and according to the cream manufacturer the dioxin containing guar gum in question originating from abroad as it does of course not grow in Finland. Even when food is made organically, grown locally here in Finland, how do you know it is not grown next to the most trafficked roads in the country, right in the middle of a big city or next to a chemical plant? Even though the food is grown without fertilizers and pesticides, according to my logic it is not organically grown with nearby sources of pollution.

Where does our food come from originally?
How healthy is it ?
Anyway, it snowed yesterday in the most northern parts of Finland and snow is quite rare this early in the year and up in the north people woke up with 5 cms of snow that had fallen during the nightIt is currently colder than it usually is in the rest of the country as well and the fall is well on its way. Funny you always look for the migrating birds to arrive in the spring and especially for the swallows to return to Finland, but you hardly ever see them leave, they just disappear every fall over night like they have done it one more time. Of course you see the other migrating birds flying to the south for the winter in long rows, singing as they leave.

Back to normal

I can not seize to wonder at the politician even though they are not fully back into office after their summer break, the retired part of the population has been promised by the government that their taxes will be lowered and they who get more than 13000 euros a year in pension will benefit from this.

So where once again did this go wrong? What about the retirees that have smaller pensions than that, why are they not taken in concern in this?!? It is the citizens with the little income than need this to be able to cope without having to go to the social services to get money so they’ll survive. First you go to work every single day for forty years and something and pay your taxes, then you retire and have to pay more taxes out of your already earned pension than you had to when in working life. See what I mean, you once already did pay our taxes now you have to do it once again.

And the pensioners with the lowest incomes are of course the mothers that had to stay home with their children as there was no other option back then. How many of these women really wanted top quit their job instead of having to quit back then? Then came back to working life after the kids grew up leaving a fairly small pension to live on, the husband divorcing remarrying a younger one, well then there is not even his pension to rely on for survival. Only one option remains, applying for social benefits. The money still has to come from somewhere and it seems that it is just shuffled around as show.

Anyway, with the more consistent than intermittent rain showers of yesterday some things than needed to be done finally got done. Like paperwork which I just hate, but as it was due to be sent off today the deadline was hanging threatening my peace of mind all the time. Then there was the rhubarb that had to be taken care in the afternoon of along with the picked redcurrants than needed to be cooked into jelly and the weekend’s catch of perch and pike. This time a couple of quite big likes to my surprise which will make a nice soup later when it is not as hot as it still tends to be.

Tomorrow for instance the forecast promised steaming rain showers as it should be 27 degrees hot!

And today school finally started and I can get back into my normal day routine with no one disturbing it!

Food culture

The is an ongoing debate in the current government budget talks about a general reduction of VAT on food in Finland from 17% to 8% aimed to take effect latest at the beginning of the year 2009.

And consumption of healthier foods might be made preferable for consumers by reducing the taxation on vegetables and low-fat products. The Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry emphasises it taking at least six months before consideration of possible tax benefits of healthy foods and that this should not be mixed with the general VAT reduction on food.

Today on Finland also has received its’ first commissioner for Food culture after in recent years a couple of visiting foreign politicians having loudly expressed their demeaning opinions on Finnish food and the complete lack of food culture in Finland. Now the food culture commissioner has to enhance the appreciation of Finnish food and form a trend of food culture in this country.

As he was interviewed on morning TV this morning the Food culture commissioner emphasised that food has to look like itself, to be recognizable, instead of being fancily disguised, in order to be appropriately appreciated.

I have for long been along the same lines, simple food looking like what it is and no cross-over-cuisine, maybe that should go for the cooking on morning TV as well. I really wonder what this food culture commissioner thinks about their cooking and him being a former teacher in one of the best cooking schools in Finland, well wonder what grades he’d give for the coleslaw made yesterday for instance?

At least that Coleslaw would be eligible for the tax-reduction for the vegetables as well as for the light sour cream used in it.

Realistic over-heating

The other day I wrote about the swallows having returned to Finland, well this almost true as there is one swallow that has been sighted, it must be have been the first pioneering scout arriving and but today more of them arrived.
And 10 new species of butterflies are reported to have landed in Finland which means more insects for the birds to eat.

According to the latest statistics the unemployment in April has decreased compared to last year and more people are now working with most of them in the private sector. Out of a population of more than 5 millions only just a little less than 2 ½ millions are employed so the rest must be the unemployed, children, students and retired. Just about half and half.

This means Finland must be doing well but according to the new minister of finances we must be careful as “over-heating is realistic for the time being” and the income tax-levels won’t be lowered as promised until later on, in the end of the four year period of this government just before the next elections.

If more people have got jobs and the taxes are lower, then they have more money to spend and the economy is doing well as money is moving with the possible result of even more jobs getting created.

What on earth is this over-heating? I do know about global warming but that is not what he is talking about, or an engine over-heating, but how does the economy over-heat?!?

Life in a nut shell

The Finnish Supreme court asked the Finnish customs authorities to adjust the taxes they impose on imported used cars The taxes have so far been valued too high according the ruling form the Supreme court and new guidelines will be needed. This will be good for anyone purchasing their car from abroad from now on, as cars are quite expensive here in Finland, but also for them who have already done so as they get an opportunity to appeal to the customs authorities about the taxes they have had to pay.

The weekend was busy at the Senate’s square in Helsinki with big audiences of tens of thousands watching the Eurovision song contest on Saturday and the ice-hockey world championships final between Canada and Finland on Sunday from giant TV-screens. Must be one reason why Mother’s day was so subdued for many.

I did get some flowers in the end yesterday but we all the missed eating out at a restaurant as off-spring did not arrive at home at time agreed but 2 ½ hours later instead.

Well that is life for the moment in a nut shell. People talk about how difficult babies are as, well wait until they are adolescents and want to keep their own mind no matter what the consequences may be. And having a couple of teenagers at the same time really is a strain as you have to keep up with whom has done what and when. I mean, it is not fair to accuse the wrong one of what the other is to be blamed about. So disobedience and disagreements are the daily routine for the moment. The parents who have survived and stayed sane after their adolescents grew up to be proper people say they are quite nice now, especially the ones who have had children.

Being a grandparent must be grand, just lending the baby for some time and when it begins screaming handing it over to the parent at hand. Well, I have to survive teenage hell first. So I have something to look forward to, one day, eventually and it might be just what is needed to keep me sane and going.

Blue-green

Today the newly elected announced that they have agreed upon forming a four party government , a blue-green government, and the present prime minister is presumed to be continuing in his office. I wonder how four parties with as varying priorities can come to an agreement from where to begin their reign and be successful in it. But then, as they say, “The loveliest harmonies arise from differences”. Who was it that said that, some French philosopher? Or German maybe?

Anyway, the Finnish customs are now investigating suspected fraud and tax-evasion in steel exports and the actions of some employees in the company suspected in the case, and if I have not got it all wrong, the company in question is part owned by the government. The Finnish government is currently part-owner of 440 companies to subside their operations and helping them to get started and Finland is the least corrupt country in the world according to International research, but what does this suggest?!?

I know, it was Heraclitus! And the full quote is:

“Opposites always complement each other.
The loveliest harmonies arise from differences.”

Raised taxes

A few years back the taxes on hard liquor like Whisky, Vodka and Koskenkorva were lowered here in Finland and became more affordable than other alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer and cider.

Which I found quite bizarre already then.

Maybe it was good the government with an increase in the tax-income as most of it came from liquor manufactured in a distillery owned by the government, as it also happens to be the preferred alcoholic drink in this country.

More money for the politicians to spend on things like the Parliament Centennial celebrations. Or maybe the politicians tried to save some money with the cheaper booze?

Anyway, now the politicians finally have begun to rethink the whole thing as there has been an alarming raise in alcohol related health problems during the population and especially among youngsters. There has been a lot more hospital admissions due to alcohol intoxication and various other injuries inflicted under the influence as well as an increase in many diseases related to prolonged alcohol consumption. More money needed for the public healthcare.

So good news now is, that there is a proposition to attach labels on all the packages of alcoholic beverages, just like the warning labels on cigarettes such as ”Smoking deteriorates your health” and the advertising of alcohol is also to be restricted.

And the taxes are going up again.

Drunk more cost-effectively

When moving here I was stunned to find out that the only place to shopping for your accustomed alcoholic beverages such as wines, strong beers and strong liquor is the Finnish governmentally owned shop “Alko”. They only have the exclusive rights to sell alcohol, and no such things as off-license from a restaurant or a Pub! And nothing stronger than mild beer and ciders are sold in the supermarkets. I have heard that is not until quite recently that the liquor still was rationed and you had to save up your ratios if you had a party coming up!

This is just plain, ordinary Finnish politics, Big Brother watching over the little citizen.

The Alko-shops are quite conveniently open, even on Saturdays so you won’t have to make big plans to get your drinks either and they are usually most conveniently situated in big shopping-centres or in junction with big supermarkets. But one thing that catches the eye though.

About a year ago the government decided to lower the taxes on alcoholic beverages, especially strong liquor. But the prices of wine, beers and ciders were not cut as much as the prices of stronger alcohol like vodka and such, and the consumption of strong liquor has since then increased.

Cheaper prices on strong liquor has resulted in young unaccustomed drinkers and teenagers getting drunk more cost-effectively on the more affordable liquors, with the result of an alarming increase in the amount of teenagers ending up in hospitals because of various intoxication related causes. The youngsters now get too drunk too fast on their vodka to be able to properly handle their level of intoxication.

And here I have to mention that you are not allowed to shop in Alko if not old enough, so another problem is the illegal bootlegging of alcohol to youngsters. Now with EU the tax-free has disappeared and you can bring almost as much alcohol as you like to into the country, so I guess this no longer is such a big issue. Is it?

But still worth a thought.