The Finnish Tax Administration collected a total of 81.4 billion euros in taxes during 2022, the agency announced on Thursday. That represents an increase of 5.8 billion euros, or 7.7 percent, compared to the previous year.
The authority said the taxes that increased the most were: corporate taxes (+1.9 billion, +29.3%); income taxes for private individuals (+1.8 billion, +5.4%); and VAT (+1.2 billion, +5.8%).
In a statement on Thursday, the Tax Administration's Matti Luokkanen said about one-third of the increase, or about two billion euros, came from many private individuals and businesses who paid an exceptional amount of additional advance and back taxes for the tax year 2021.
Income tax revenue for private individuals in 2022 amounted to 35.5 billion euros, which reflected an increase of 1.82 billion euros.
More people working
The agency said reasons for the increased income revenue included improvement in the economy as well as employment rate.
Luokkanen said the bigger figures were also due to the growth of taxpayers receiving salaries every month after a sharp decline during the pandemic.
"During January to November 2022, there were on average 100,000 more people who received salary income than compared to the corresponding period in 2021," Luokkanen explained.
Collected VAT, or value added taxes, amounted to 21.1 billion euros last year, about 5.8 percent more than in 2021, an increase that Luokkanen attributed to increased consumption.
The Tax Administration noted that the recent growth of consumer costs, or inflation, was not estimated to independently affect VAT income increases alone, because consumption has correspondingly fallen as prices have risen.
Meanwhile, the growth of corporate taxes was largely due to an exceptional amount of additional advance and back tax payments for the year 2021.
During the first half of last year, the authority announced that it had collected around 42 billion euros so far during the tax year.
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