It's tax day in Finland, and the media is excited. Everyone who pays Finnish taxes is in the data, which records the amount of earned income, capital income and the amount of taxes paid. That information is then published eleven months later so people can--for a price--pore over lists of names and numbers, and media can dig out information they can mould into stories.
This year's initial stories are in, and Helsingin Sanomat appear to have a bit of a scoop about pharmacies. The industry is heavily regulated in Finland, and deregulation has been on the political agenda for some time. Reform, it's argued, would bring down prices for ordinary people and reduce public spending on support for medicine purchases, creating a win-win situation.
Or win-win-lose, if you include the pharmacists who have hitherto resisted reform. And no wonder, as HS shows on Tuesday that they earn on average six times more than the Finnish average income. The paper looked at the incomes of 568 pharmacists licensed to practice in Finland--not the assistant pharmacists who normally dispense medicines in retail stores.
The top-earning pharmacist in the country is Elina Järvenpää, 51, of the Ostrobothnian town of Töysä, who made some 1.49 million euros in 2015, while on average those with the papers to practice pharmacy earned some 237,000 euros.
Helsingin Sanomat, Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat all have tax data sections on their websites this morning, with stories and details emerging throughout the day--but only in Finnish.
Repossessions on the rise
HS also covers those doing less well in this economy, via a Helsinki story on the rise in homes that have been repossessed by lenders and sold at auction. The paper turned up at a showing of one such property in the eastern district of Kallio for a look round.
That flat is evidence of a larger trend: in 2008 the number of forced sales was 8,244 nationwide. In 2015 it had grown to 12,135. In Kallio people had questions at the viewing, including whether or not the previous occupant had been evicted, did the flat smell of cigarette smoke, are there debts to the building to pay?
One man decided that this particular flat, in a hip neighbourhood close to the city centre, was already too expensive given the renovation it would require. It eventually sold for 150,000 euros, but given the wider trend, there may well be other opportunities to bag a bargain from the bailiffs.
Sweet tooth on the prowl
Ilta-Sanomat carries a story about a serial swindler with an unusual but consistent modus operandi. He turns up at a restaurant, eats and drinks well, then announces that unfortunately he can't pay the bill. Helsinki police say there have been dozens of similar cases in a short space of time. The 47-year-old man openly admits he's been doing this since the 1990s, so there are estimated to have been hundreds of free meals in that time.
He does not look like a typical bum, according to Mika Myöhänen of Helsinki police.
"Politeness will get you a long way," said Myöhänen. "(He) doesn't complain, isn't aggressive, has good manners. He often asks the waiter to recommend something from the menu."
Police are now considering whether to write up future incidents as fraud, which carries heavier penalties than the fines for minor fraud he has paid so far. Myöhänen is guarded on the man's origins, saying that he is a 'countryside man', but cannot resist stating that he is from 'east of Jyväskylä', or in the Savo region.