Tax revenue grows by 2.2% in 2018

The accrual of taxes and compulsory social security contributions grew by 2.2 per cent in 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

The total accrual amounted to EUR 99.1 billion. The tax ratio fell from the previous year by 0.9 percentage points to 42.4 per cent.

The tax ratio describes the ratio of taxes and compulsory social security contributions to gross domestic product. These data are based on the preliminary data on national accounts for 2018.

The value added tax revenue grew by 4.6 per cent and was EUR 21.3 billion. The majority of other taxes on goods and services also increased in revenue compared to the previous year. The revenue from the tobacco tax, alcohol tax and central government's share of Oy Veikkaus Ab's profit, for example, increased significantly.

The revenue from tobacco tax increased by 15.9 per cent and was EUR 1.1 billion. The revenue from alcohol tax increased by 10.1 per cent and was EUR 1.5 billion. The revenue from central government's share of Oy Veikkaus Ab's profit increased by 8.6 per cent and was EUR 1.1 billion. The revenue from energy taxes increased by 1.9 per cent and was EUR 4.4 billion.

The income tax paid by households rose by 1.1 per cent and totalled EUR 28.5 billion. The revenue from taxes on property decreased by 3.2 per cent compared with to previous year. The revenue from inheritance and gift tax was EUR 692 million which was 23.9 per cent less than the exceptionally high revenue in 2017. The revenue from transfer tax was EUR 844 million, an increase of 8.8 per cent from one year before.

EUR 55 million collected as contributions to the Single Resolution Fund from credit institutions was recorded as tax revenue for the institutions of the European Union.

In 2018, the tax revenue of the central government totalled EUR 48.7 billion. The growth from the year before amounted to 3.8 per cent. The tax revenue of local government totalled EUR 22.5 billion and decreased by 1.3 per cent from one year before. The revenue of compulsory social security contributions of social security funds grew by 2.6 per cent and it totalled EUR 27.7 billion. The proportion of taxes and compulsory social security contributions in consolidated total general government revenue was 80.6 per cent in 2018.