Taxation | I Would Gladly Pay More Tax

A Helsingin Sanomat reader says she would gladly pay 1% to 2% more income tax if the money could help people who have become unemployed through no fault of their own and others driven into hardship by government policy.

Kyllikki Laine, who earns slightly more than 3,000 euros a month before tax, says the proposed increase would not change her consumption or lifestyle in any meaningful way. She also argues that it would not threaten the country’s nascent economic growth.

Laine portrays tax increases as the current government’s great fear, one that she says it hears repeatedly in opposition speeches. Her letter calls for a modest rise in taxation as a way to support people facing hardship.