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Tax revenue secured
Proactive guidance
Proactive guidance refers to contacting certain limited customer groups with the aim of ensuring compliance and timely action and, through this, securing tax revenue. Proactive guidance is implemented through letters, SMS messages, telephone calls, proactive discussions, and training events.
In 2025, we sent nearly 0.9 million guidance letters (2024: 1.1 million). This decrease was due to the shift of focus to other guidance methods to reduce paper mail. We made 6,709 telephone calls to provide tax guidance (2024: 4,913) to taxpayers, including new entrepreneurs and newly established companies. We also sent text messages to taxpayers to remind them of current matters, such as the deadlines for reporting and paying value-added tax. In 2025, we sent almost 300,000 text messages (2024: 163,169). The increase in the number of messages was partly due self-employed individuals being reminded to submit their tax returns by text message instead of by letter.
Tax control
In 2025, a total of 4,318 different control measures were carried out (2024: 4,354). There were a total of 1,651 tax audits (2024: 1,429).
Based on the control measures, a total of EUR 443 million in taxes was imposed in 2025 (2024: EUR 296 million). Compared to 2024, the 2025 figure includes the completion of a number of individual cases significant in terms of euros. In 2025, approximately 20,100 customers were removed from the VAT registers at the initiative of the authorities (2024: 19,100), and the registration of approximately 5,300 customers was refused (2024: 5,000). A little more than 23,900 customers were removed from the prepayment register at the initiative of the authorities in 2025 (2024: 22,000) and the registration of approximately 6,000 customers was refused (2024: 5,900). In efforts to combat the grey economy, we blocked and removed operators not meeting the registration criteria from the prepayment and VAT registers. The number of such cases was approximately 1,300 (2024: 1,760).
Registration also played a key role in monitoring sanctions against Russia and in combating identity fraud. In 2025, we carried out 710 grey-economy tax audits (2024: 616). The accuracy of the audit target selection was high: almost 90 per cent of the audits (2024: 86%) led to taxes being imposed and around 85% (2024: 81%) were considered for criminal proceedings.
Our efforts to combat the grey economy dealt with 3,884 VAT returns (2024: 3,309), resulting in EUR 312.8 million of tax being debited (2024: 19.8 million). Forty-one cases were forwarded for consideration for criminal proceedings (2024: 36). In addition, unfounded registrations in the prepayment and VAT registers were declined, and ineligible entries were removed from the registers. In total, there were 2,910 such cases (2024: 2,760).
As part of our tax refund fraud monitoring, we rejected €3.5 million worth of tax withholdings from individuals in charge of bankrupt companies and their family members or close associates (2024: €2.0 million) and processed cases involving the grey economy in matters such as Incomes Register fraud. The number of cases processed was 999 (2024: 264). In our efforts to monitor employer contributions, 860 cases of unfounded and unpaid wage reports were investigated, with an accuracy rate of 41%, compared to 695 reports and an accuracy of 38% in the previous year.
In excise duty monitoring, we processed refund applications and made tax decisions that led to the imposition of €13 million of taxes (2024: €4.6 million). We also monitored a total of 630 operators (2024: 681) in the taxi, restaurant, construction and festival industries.
Grey Economy Information Unit
The Grey Economy Information Unit examines the impacts and prevention of grey economy phenomena and assesses the impact of legislation. Reports on the underground economy are also prepared to support the tasks of supervisory and permit authorities. The financial integrity of companies was assessed in several reports focusing on government grants, money collection permits, public procurements, and transport permits. Reporting violations were identified in nearly all audits, and inquiries were made concerning failures to file mandatory Trade Register updates. During the year, reports on the situation of bankruptcies and the impacts of audits on the tax behaviour of limited liability companies in the grey economy were also published, and losses of corporate income tax caused by the grey economy were examined. In total, 150 reports on the underground economy, as well as other statements and data-production tasks, were completed during the year.
The information unit provides a compliance report service to support the tasks of public authorities. The use of the compliance report service expanded to cover further regulatory functions, and the service was used in 40 public authority tasks by the end of the year (2024: 38). More than 730,000 compliance report requests were received.
The joint situational awareness function, coordinated by the Grey Economy Information Unit, maintained an up-to-date picture of the shadow economy and economic crime by publishing 61 information products on the Grey Economy and Economic Crime website. The publications included statistics on the number of measures to combat the grey economy and economic crime, as well as reports on various grey economy phenomena.
The Grey Economy and Economic Crime website
Tax debt management and recovery
During 2025, tax debt increased by almost EUR 340 million (+8.1%). At the end of 2025, outstanding tax amounted to EUR 4.5 billion, compared to EUR 4.18 billion at the end of 2024. Of this amount, the share of new tax debt, i.e., tax debt items less than one year old, was 32% (2024: 33%). More than half of the tax debt was held by taxpayers such as bankrupt companies, from whom it cannot be actively collected; they were also responsible for more than 30% of the increase in tax debt. The number of new debt items still in the reminder phase also increased, accounting for 32% of the total increase in debt.
Statistics on tax debts and payment difficulties (in Finnish)
Metrics and goals
| Metric | Actual 2021 | Actual 2022 | Actual 2023 | Actual 2024 | Objective 2025 | Actual 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxpayers who feel supervision is effective (%) | 1) | 91 | 90 | 94 | ≥ 85 | 93 |
| Share of new tax debt in total tax debt (%) | 28 | 32 | 33 | 33 | ≤ 35 | 32 |
| Share of timely tax payments (%) | 93 | 92 | 93 | 93 | ≥ 93 | 93 |
1) As the study used different response options, the results are not comparable with studies of later years.
Highlights from the past year: publishing revised tax data improved tax transparency
To promote transparency and public dialogue on tax-related matters, certain tax records concerning individuals and corporate entities, specifically income and real estate taxes, are public information in Finland.
As of autumn 2024, tax transparency has increased, with certain post-review changes now being made public for the 2022 tax year onward. Previously, only the so-called regular tax assessment records were public; in other words, the records as they stood at the end of the annual tax assessment.
In January 2025, the Tax Administration published corporate income tax reassessment records as open data on the vero.fi website for the first time. In the future, changes made during the previous calendar year will be added to the open data annually.
Publishing the corporate income tax records of both regular and reviewed assessments as open data makes it possible to compare the records and highlight the changes that have occurred. The accuracy of public information also improves when the updated records are published.
Highlights from the past year: crackdown on restaurants revealed unpaid taxes
The Tax Administration stepped up its supervision of fast-food outlets from early 2023 through autumn 2025. Over a period of a little more than two years, 373 restaurant businesses were inspected, mainly pizzerias, kebab shops, and Chinese restaurants. Intensified monitoring revealed 11 million in unpaid taxes. In as many as 53 percent of the cases, such serious deficiencies were found that they were referred for consideration for criminal investigation.
Bad actors typically failed to ring up sales, paid wages under the table, and neglected employer contributions. Neglecting these obligations provides a competitive advantage, as prices can be kept much lower than those of competitors who play by the rules. The Tax Administration monitors compliance to ensure that taxes are collected fairly from everyone.
Highlights from the past year: productivity through technology and development
The Tax Administration drives productivity gains by automating routine work, evolving its workflows and using modern technological solutions. Artificial intelligence has significant potential and will reshape how the Tax Administration works in the years ahead.
Improving productivity and expanding the use of AI require investments in leadership development and systematic staff training. Extensive management training programs, including new online learning solutions, were introduced in 2025 and continue to be developed.
Data-driven management helps us make better decisions, but people are at the heart of everything. While goals and metrics are essential, trust, communication, and collaboration are equally important for driving progress. This also supports the well-being of the work community.