Finlandia: Think Positive and Communicate Positively - The Finnish Experience Improving Compliance by Communication / Tiina Karbin, Harriet Mallenius

Think Positive and Communicate Positively

The Finnish Experience Improving Compliance by Communication

Finnish Tax AdministrationIndividual Taxation Unit

Communications Specialists Tiina Karbin and Harriet Mallenius

Where are we now?

• According to a recent survey• 96 percent of Finns consider collecting taxes important in order

to finance the Finnish welfare state• 95 percent think that paying taxes is an important duty• 52 percent would be willing to pay even more taxes if they could

be sure that the money is used on purposes that are important for them

• 84 percent trust the Finnish Tax Administration• Majority thinks that they are not unpleasantly being kept under

constant surveillance and 81 percent consider that The Tax Administration encourages to correct conduct

> Compliance in Finland is very high

Harriet Mallenius & Tiina Karbin 21-24 October 2014 2

But still...

• 73 percent think that the system is bureaucratic and difficult to understand


Taxpayers’ Education

• Goal: Taxpayers want to be compliant • Needed for:

• Education• Getting the taxpayers’ attention• To improve the attitudes

• New tools and methods• Attention on different taxpayer categories

4Harriet Mallenius & Tiina Karbin 21-24 October 2014

Why Young People?

• Young people one of main target groups of tax guidance and education

• Why:• To reach out to the young people• To teach the correct tax conduct early • To combat the grey economy• To increase the tax morale


Challenges

• The tax system is complex and taxation difficult to grasp

• Tax education in school is often theoretical and less time is spent on practical guidance

• Online identification and authentication can be difficult for minors


Finnish Tax Administration has Confidence in Future Taxpayers

• We want to reach the young people on the right forum

• We seek new ways to reach taxpayers• Current campaigns

• Tax Event for Students• Black Future – Grey Economy • Cooperation with the Finnish Defense Force• Campaigns for young audiences


Tax Event for Students In Cooperation with a Number of Educational Units

• Organized in cooperation with a number of educational institutions all over Finland• Main target group secondary or high school

students (15-16 years old) and the students that are starting their college or university studies (19-23 years old)

• Staff members visited schools in order to give guidance


Tax Event for Students a Tax Information Package

• Included a tax information package specifically targeted to students

• Different content for different users• The information package was available

• Freely for the teachers before and after the event

• In Finnish, Swedish and English• Online: Tax Event for students


http://www.vero.fi/en-US/Tax_Administration/News/Tax_Event_for_students(26894)

Tax Event for Students

• The Tax Event for students was held first time in April 2013• More than 1 100 students and 20 educational units

participated• Feedback from the students was positive

• For the future Tax Events we …• Want to improve the concept• Expand the target audience• Will work together with the Finnish National Board of

Education• Organize the Tax Event for students every year


Grey Economy – Black Future Campaign Against Grey Economy

Grey economy - black future

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Uusi yrittäjä pahassa pulassa

Pimeä työ pettää

Sinä valitset!

Harriet Mallenius & Tiina Karbin 21-24 October 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjC3QyVCw8

Why to Campaign Against Grey Economy?• To raise public awareness on the issue• Part of Finland’s six national action plans to

combat grey economy (2012-2015)• To take preventive action against economic

criminality in Finland• To integrate grey economy prevention to

school’s educational themes • More information in Finnish and Swedish on

www.mustatulevaisuus.fi


http://www.mustatulevaisuus.fi/

Campaign themes

• How grey economy effects services• Video

• Internet frauds• Fraudulent medicines

• video

• Tax-compliant

businesses• Product safety

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjC3QyVCw8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvfZeCefTKU&feature=youtu.be

Campaign Against Grey Economy Targeted at Young People

• In cooperation with the Customs and the Police

• Focus to promote individual responsibility and underline the effects that grey economy has on everyday life

• Main target group young people• Many communication channels: e.g. for

students educational program


Campaign Against Grey Economy Students Educational Program

• Lectures held in schools all over Finland• Thousands of listeners• Positive feedback• Goal to present matters in a way that interest young

people: • The slides included e.g. comic illustrations and a recorded tape in

a story format• Learning material consisted visually uniformal slides • All partners outline their own point of view

• Great example of successful cooperation between authorities


Military Conscription and Tax Guidance


• Kuva

• 27 000 men enlist annually• Conscription time is an excellent chance to get the

attention of young men• The Finnish Tax Administration and the Finnish

Defense Force

Picture: Finnish Defense Force / Jaana Vienola

Harriet Mallenius & Tiina Karbin 21-24 October 2014

Campaigns for Young Audiences

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Campaigns for Young Audiences

• Our aim is to run yearly at least one campaign targeted at young people

• Multichannel marketing• E-mail marketing• Online newsletters for the schools and educational

units• Academic calendars• Briefings• Radio advertising• Etc.


Involving the Young in Making of the Campaigns

• Radio advertisement: tax card for your summer job

• Campaign plan for the young• Press releases and news• Content for Facebook

• games, apps, quizzes, posts

• Research


New Channels

• Chat• Facebook and other social

media • Tax24 Online Customer Service• Mobile apps• Cooperation with the

stakeholders


Measuring Communication Success


• The users of e-services by age group• Statistics of young people (under 25 years old)• Within the last couple of years relatively steady and

continuous growth• Young people more active e-service users than other

groups• To compare the change in user statistics after

introducing new marketing procedures• Other research, not systematic yet

Measuring Communication Success in the Future – Ideas and Propositions

• To monitor systematically the statistics of users by age group

• To introduce integrated online surveys and customer polls

• To introduce an automatic data collection • Do more research in general about

compliance


Any Questions?

Finnish Tax Administration • Communicational Specialist Tiina Karbin• [email protected]• +358 20 613 7892

• Communicational Specialist Harriet Mallenius• [email protected]• +358 20 612 5018


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Finlandia: Think Positive and Communicate Positively - The Finnish Experience Improving Compliance by Communication / Tiina Karbin, Harriet Mallenius