Should inheritance and gift tax be abolished? How the MPs’ panel responded

The main day of the National Ownership Transfer Week was held on Thu. 6 Nov., when a conference on ownership transfers was held in Helsinki. One part of the conference was a panel discussion featuring MPs from six parties.

The MPs discussed the availability of corporate financing, a topic that has been widely debated recently. Green MP Oras Tynkkynen told the audience about his own experiences seeking financing.

“It does not work particularly well in remote areas, and I have seen that myself in my own company.”

Tynkkynen described the process of obtaining financing as “a hopeless hassle”.

Abolish inheritance tax?

The panel moderator, Kauppalehti news editor Janne Pöysti, asked MPs Mia-Petra Kumpula-Natri (SDP), Tynkkynen, Hilkka Kemppi (Centre), Mikko Ollikainen (Swedish People’s Party), Pauli Aalto-Setälä(National Coalition Party) and Vilhelm Junnila (Finns Party) to name the single biggest current obstacle to ownership transfers: taxation, financing, expertise or finding a successor. Aalto-Setälä was the only one to highlight financing; the others leaned towards the difficulty of finding a successor.

All MPs agreed that generational transfers in family businesses should be made easier.

The panellists were also asked how they would promote generational transfers. Junnila put forward the abolition of inheritance tax, with Aalto-Setälä and Ollikainen supporting this view. Kemppi raised the Centre Party’s proposal of a ten-year interest-free period for inheritance tax, while Kumpula-Natri emphasized the need to take unforeseen situations into account to facilitate generational transfers.

A card vote on the abolition of inheritance and gift tax split the panel in two. Government coalition MPs Ollikainen, Aalto-Setälä and Junnila held up green and were ready to abolish the tax. The opposition MPs raised red cards. Kemppi, Tynkkynen and Kumpula-Natri, who held up red, justified their position by pointing to the continued need for fiscal adjustment in the coming parliamentary term.

The Ownership Transfer Forum selected OP Uusimaa’s Head of Financing, Jonna Kauppinen, as Ownership Transfer Expert of the Year. The recognition is awarded annually to honour long-term and significant work in advancing company acquisitions and generational transfers. Photo: Elli Keski-Loppi

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