Commerce provides employment and tax revenue in Finland and pays a considerable share of corporate taxes

Commerce employs around 291,000 people in Finland. Among under-25-year-olds in working life, as many as one in five work in a commerce-sector company. Commerce serves the national economy, from healthcare to construction and from industry to consumers, and thus generates well-being throughout Finland. It is very important to society how the commerce sector fares.

The significance of commerce exceeds the size of the sector when one includes indirect impacts in other sectors. With its daily operations and investments, commerce creates jobs and well-being indirectly through a wide range of other sectors in Finland.

Commerce provides employment and tax revenue in Finland. In 2022, the income tax revenue from the commerce sector amounted to EUR 2,373 million, or 7.0 per cent of total income tax revenue. In the same year, the largest amount of income tax revenue came from public administration: EUR 12,108 million, which is 35.6 per cent of total income tax revenue.

“The size and importance of commerce are often not recognised, although the economic growth impacts of domestic commerce extend to almost all sectors and industries. Therefore, there is also often a lack of awareness of how orders or investments made by commerce create new innovations and new types of activities in other sectors,” says Jaana Kurjenoja, Chief Economist of the Finnish Commerce Federation.

In 2022, of all sectors, commerce paid the second highest amount of corporate taxes in Finland, EUR 1,147 million, or 13.4 per cent of the total amount. In the same year, the financial and insurance sector paid the most corporate taxes, amounting to EUR 1,575 million, representing 18.4 per cent of total corporate tax revenue.

The value commerce has added to the economy has grown faster than the entire national economy. This means that commerce has become an increasingly significant creator of well-being in Finland.

Commerce has responded to domestic and foreign competition by, for example, streamlining, digitalising and automating its operations. Digitalisation and automation, among other things, have increased investments made by commerce.

In 2022, commerce generated VAT revenue totalling EUR 10,381 million, or 49 per cent of total VAT revenue.

Further information: Jaana Kurjenoja, Chief Economist, tel. +358 40 820 5378, jaana.kurjenoja(at)kauppa.fi