Survival of the Richest

Finland
Global solutions
In its development policy, the Finnish government has
recognised that: “EU decisions and agreements in fields
such as taxation, trade and agriculture and similar decisions
by other organisations carry major immediate or indirect
consequences for developing countries.” 373 However, Finland
does not support the establishment of an intergovernmental
UN tax body, which would ensure that developing countries
have a seat at the table when global tax standards are
decided. The Ministry of Finance sees a global body under the
UN as “double work” and considers that developing countries
are able to participate sufficiently in OECD-led processes. 374
In its statement regarding Finland’s new development
policy, the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee noted
that the possibility of strengthening the UN Tax Committee
should be looked into. 375
Conclusion
Finland remains more progressive than most countries
on the issue of transparency. However, the government
does not currently seem to be championing the issue
internationally. At the national level, the government tried
to reduce the levels of transparency around shareholder
ownership, but was blocked by parliament.
In Finland, political parties across the spectrum condemn
aggressive tax planning, but the ruling parties have not
taken the necessary ambitious measures to introduce
real solutions. While not amongst the worst, Finland has a
significant number of indicators of aggressive tax planning
structures and sweetheart deals with multinational
corporations. Finnish tax treaties with developing countries
are also an issue of concern. Although they are relatively
few in numbers, they do cause relatively high reductions in
developing country tax rates.
Lastly, it is problematic that Finland does not support the
establishment of an intergovernmental UN tax body, which
would ensure that developing countries have a seat at the
table when global tax standards are negotiated. This is in
spite of the fact that the government acknowledges that these
decisions have major impacts on developing countries.
64 • Survival of the Richest