State employees take up skiing: If 100,000 citizens activate electronic messages from the authorities, the authorities promise to ski 10,000 kilometres
Published 22/1/2020
The Population Register Centre and the Finnish Tax Administration invite Finnish citizens to move to electronic communication with state authorities instead of paper mail. If 100,000 Finns activate the Suomi.fi Messages service by the end of February, Population Register Centre Director General Janne Viskari and Tax Administration Director General Markku Heikura, together with their colleagues, promise to clock up 10,000 kilometres on cross-country skis.
Finnish citizens can stop receiving paper mail from the authorities by activating the electronic Suomi.fi Messages service. When you activate the service, you get e-mail notifications for all official correspondence you receive. For example, if you activate Messages by the end of February, you will get an e-mail about your tax return as soon as it’s ready to be checked in the MyTax e-service. In this case, you would no longer receive a pre-completed tax return by post in April.
Many other official institutions also support Suomi.fi Messages. Traficom, TE services and many municipalities can send you correspondence on the Messages service. You will also receive your notice of voting right in this spring’s elections in Suomi.fi Messages if you activate the service by the end of February.
Suomi.fi Messages saves time, nature and taxpayer money
The Finnish Tax Administration mails 20 million letters every year. If the Tax Administration stopped sending out paper mail, Finland would save at least €10 million in taxpayer money every year. This is why the Tax Administration and the Population Register Centre want to encourage citizens to start using Suomi.fi Messages.
- With this campaign, we want to let every citizen know that they can change the paper letters they receive from public officials into simple and secure electronic messaging. And, of course, everyone is welcome to join us on the ski tracks! says Director General Janne Viskari from the Population Register Centre.
- We want to make tax matters simple and easy for everyone with the help of good online services. In the past few years, more and more people have been using our e-services to take care of their taxes. Moving from paper mail to electronic communication is one step in this process. We at the Tax Administration are happy to take up the skis for this good cause. Our MyTax e-service makes it easy to take care of your taxes online, says Director General Markku Heikura from the Tax Administration.
Follow the officials on the snowy ski tracks
You can follow how the officials are faring in the skiing challenge on the virkamiehetladulla.fi websiteOpens in a new window. and the campaign’s Facebook pageOpens in a new window..