OLL demands cancellation of VAT hike in sports services

The Finnish Student Sports Federation (OLL) on Thursday demanded that the VAT rate increase of sports services be abandoned, said the OLL in a press release.

The government’s proposal being deliberated by Parliament would increase the VAT rate of sports services from 10 per cent to 14 per cent.

The increase in VAT rate – and consequently in service prices – is implemented in a situation where more than half of university students are exercising too little, said OLL in a statement.

“The VAT rate increases diminish students’ opportunities to exercise in a meaningful way and do sports on their own. They also increase the operational costs of students’ own sports clubs, university sports services and operators letting out facilities for student sports,” said Mio Kortelainen, the President of the OLL.

According to the estimate of the Ministry of Finance Finland, increasing the VAT rate of sports services will bring the state 12 million euros a year. This is a thousandth of the amount of national debt that will be taken in 2025. For university students, every price increase is significant.

Students and other members of low-income groups already have less money to spend on sports services that are subject to a fee.

According to a study carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) , every fourth student has had to worry about not having enough money for food.

Moreover, almost one fifth of the students said that they have had to skimp on buying medicine due to lack of money.

This is the situation regardless of the fact that the majority of students who have taken out a student loan are primarily using it for everyday essentials.

“When a student has to give up buying medicine because of the cost, it is clear that they have already cut costs on sports services. We think that the mental and physical benefits of exercising should be available to all students,” said Kortelainen.

OLL calls for all services promoting physical activity and health be taxed at the lower VAT rate.

Instead of increasing the VAT rate, university students should be encouraged to use sports services with student discounts and sport vouchers, for example.

At the very least, the VAT increase should be implemented with a transition period to spare students from having to deal with all the cost increases and benefit reductions at the same time. This would give time for both assessing the impact of the increases on exercising and physical activity and conducting the survey on supporting physical activity through tax revenue, included in the Government Programme.