Kauppalehti leads with a project by the Tax Administration to crack down on foreign online stores that have been dodging their responsibility to pay VAT on sales in Finland.
Finnish law states that an operator that sells more than 35,000 euros worth of products in a year must register with the tax authorities and pay VAT. Many foreign companies operating online, however, fail to take that step.
That leaves Finnish online stores disadvantaged in the market, and the tax man has started to do something about it. The project involves tax officials contacting firms and in some cases starting investigations, and the man in charge of the effort tells KL it has yielded some 10 million euros in extra annual revenue since 2013.
KL reports that the EU Commission has also noted the problem, announcing in early December a raft of measures to help countries collect some of the VAT that currently goes missing. The Commission reckons this will benefit member states to the tune of some five billion euros.
Trump picks Barra
Iltalehti catches up on news from the Donald Trump transition today, with a story about GM Motors CEO Mary Barra being named as part of the president-elect's advisory panel on job creation and economic policy. Barra is of Finnish stock, and has therefore been on the radar of Finnish media since she took the top job at GM in 2013.
That coverage reached a peak in 2014 when Time magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Now she'll be advising the new president on policy from February, when the panel will convene for the first time. She's also one of only two women involved in the 16-strong group.
IL reports that her maiden name is the very Finnish Makela, and she lives in the Detroit suburbs with her husband Tony and their two kids.
Kanerva checks in
The least surprising football news of the year dribbled out over the course of Sunday and Monday: Hans Backe was sacked as coach of the Finnish national team. Backe had failed to win a single game during his year in charge, and he'll now be replaced by old FA hand Markku Kanerva.
There was some consternation among journalists at the FA's refusal to confirm the news when it leaked on Sunday, and to comment on it when it was finally confirmed on Monday. Ilta-Sanomat's opinion piece outlined the theme by citing one master of communications.
"Trust is good, control is better, said Josef Stalin, and the FA chairman's media management does not really differ from the Soviet dictator's," wrote Saku-Pekka Sundelin.
Instead there was an interview with Alaja published on the FA's own online video channel, Huuhkaja TV, in which he says that Kanerva did not get the job a year ago because 'he didn't apply'. Sundelin wonders what that says about the ambition of the new Finland boss, and of the initiative of the FA leadership if they could not walk down the corridor to suggest he might like to go for the post.
In any case, IS and the rest of the football press cautiously welcome Kanerva as a possible improvement on Backe. Given that he lost nine and drew two of his eleven games in charge, failing to win a match, that's hardly surprising.