Earlier this week it was reported that the government is considering changes to the tax code to encourage businesses to invest. The model leaked then was a tax break to take investment spending outside taxation, meaning that companies would have an incentive to put money into growth and--the theory goes--create jobs.
The debate is intensifying ahead of the budget talks at the end of August during which the three government parties will finalise next year's tax and spending plans. That's the context for today's report in Helsingin Sanomat which covers a study from the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries.
It's advocating the so-called 'Estonian model' of taxation in which corporate income is only taxed when the owners take it out of the enterprise. until then capital can stay in the business, build up from year to year and be spent on new investments as required. The Centre Party's plan leaked this week has been described as a 'poor man's Estonian model'.
The lobby group reckons that the 'proper' Estonian model of taxation would create up to 21,000 new jobs in Finland. HS reports that there are pros and cons to the model, with the main drawback that it 'locks in' capital to companies--they tend not to take it out as dividends or anything else as that incurs taxation.
Toilet trauma for phone-obsessed Finns
Smartphones are everywhere these days, and they are are also in need of regular replacement. Iltalehti reports that the If insurance group has seen a 20 percent rise in claims for broken phones in the last three years--and some of those are for people dropping them down the toilet.
"They can fall into the bowl from a back pocket, for instance," said If's Juha T. Virtanen. "Now the trend is not to read Donald Duck in paper form while on the toilet, but to read social media updates on a smartphone. Phones can easily slip out of people's hands."
That's not the only danger of using a phone while on the throne. Bathroom floors are often tiled, meaning that a fall onto the floor can be as damaging or worse than one into the toilet itself. Cracked screens can be expensive, but on cheaper phones they might cost less to replace than the excess on a home contents insurance policy.
IL recommends taking care, especially when letting children use smartphones--they can easily decide to throw it down the pan.
HJK on their way
It's been a big summer of football in the Nordic countries, with Iceland winning hearts all over the world during their march to the quarter-finals at Euro 2016. That success inevitably drew much hand-wringing in Finland, with it's population more than fifteen times bigger than Iceland's and not a single qualification for a major tournament.
HJK are doing their best to restore some pride however. On Thursday they beat IFK Gothenburg in Sweden to give themselves a great chance of progression to the next round of the Europa League.
What's more they had some Finnish media there to follow them--not always a given with Finnish club sides, such is the status of Finnish club football. Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta-Sanomat were the two newspapers represented at the Gamla Ullevi, and they were rewarded with a great Finnish success story.
They had Colombian forward Alfredo Morelos and Japanese schemer Atomu Tanaka to thank for their goals in a 2-1 win, but the Helsinki club was better than IFK and has the chance of a famous victory next week in Finland.