Tampere’s Aamulehti gives over a page and a half to Health Minister Laura Räty’s tax arrangements, which were uncovered by Yle on Monday. It emerged that between 2006 and 2009, Räty was among the medical doctors taking advantage of a complex accounting setup which allows them to declare taxable income as tax-free dividends.
Following the revelations, Prime Minister Stubb told the media yesterday that avoiding taxes is never right, but he stood by his minister. “What happened is legally acceptable, and occurs in many professions,” he said.
Offering Räty – who apologised but denied any wrongdoing – his “full support,” Aamulehti reports that Stubb went on to say that the real problem behind this issue is the profitability of the current income tax system, adding that the subject needs to be discussed.
Meanwhile a column on the same page comments that those in public office must abide to higher moral standards than the rest of us, but wonders whether in this latest scandal, Räty’s gender might have a bearing on the level of public outrage. “When it’s a woman in power the public outcry is always ratcheted up a few levels,” the commentator says. “A male minister would have got away with a far easier apology than Räty for diverting a small amount of income.”
Invasion or cock-up?
The latest alleged airspace incursion – currently denied by Russia – makes the front pages of both the tabloids this morning. Ilta-Sanomat claims that in addition to the Russian aircraft spotted in Finnish skies on Monday and Saturday, there have also been an increasing number of submarines photographed in the bay of Finland.
“Could this be Russia’s reaction to crisis-management exercises, which are bringing Nato-countries’ warships to Finland?” the paper asks. Not according to the government. “We no longer interpret these possible incursions as provocation,” says Defence Minister Carl Haglund. Meanwhile the paper speaks to a researcher who plays down the threat from Russia, while a professor from the Aleksanteri Institute of Russian studies suggests that increased military activity as a result of the Ukraine crisis makes navigational cock-ups more likely.
Too much faith in healthcare system
Meanwhile Helsingin Sanomat’s lead story focuses on a new study which reveals the postcode lottery of healthcare in Finland’s biggest towns.
“Finns have too much faith in their public health system,” the paper reports a professor from the University of Eastern Finland as saying. The study uncovered large differences in death rates among the under-70s through cancer, alcohol use and suicide in different urban neighbourhoods.
The research claims Oulu is the country’s suicide hotspot, while northern Espoo sees markedly more deaths from cancer than any other town.
And in a stereotype-busting revelation, the report states that greater Helsinki suffers a higher proportion of alcohol-related deaths than any area of St Petersburg.
However the study has come in for criticism, with some academics arguing that some of the neighbourhoods have very small populations, and the research period was short. A health chief tells the paper that more research would be needed before any changes to public policy are made.
But the report’s authors rebut the criticisms, saying that they analysed around 20,000 deaths in each individual neighbourhood over a period of four years.