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
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But still...
• 73 percent think that the system is bureaucratic and difficult to understand
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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Campaign themes
• How grey economy effects services• Video
• Internet frauds• Fraudulent medicines
• video
• Tax-compliant
businesses• Product safety
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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
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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
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Military Conscription and Tax Guidance
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• 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
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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.
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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
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New Channels
• Chat• Facebook and other social
media • Tax24 Online Customer Service• Mobile apps• Cooperation with the
stakeholders
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Measuring Communication Success
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• 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
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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
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