Getting a speeding ticket is not a feel-good moment for anyone. But consider Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman.
He
was recently fined 54,024 euros (about $58,000) for traveling a modest, if
illegal, 64 miles per hour in a 50 m.p.h. zone. And no, the 54,024 euros did
not turn out to be a typo, or a mistake of any kind.
Mr.
Kuisla is a millionaire, and in Finland the fines for more serious speeding infractions
are calculated according to income. The thinking here is that if it stings for
the little guy, it should sting for the big guy, too.
The
Nordic countries have long had a strong egalitarian streak, embracing
progressive taxation and high levels of social spending. Perhaps less well
known is that they also practice progressive punishment, when it comes to
certain fines. A rich person, many citizens here believe, should pay more for
the same offense if justice is to be served. The question is: How much more?
At
the University of Helsinki, Jussi Lahti, 35, a graduate student in geography,
said that he could understand why Mr. Kuisla was upset, but that he considered
the principle of an equal percentage fair. And, he added, Mr. Kuisla “had a
choice when he decided to speed.”
The
size of Mr. Kuisla’s ticket nonetheless drew considerable attention here as
television shows and newspapers debated the merits of Finland’s system, which
uses a complex formula based on income to calculate an individual’s fines. Some
wondered whether the government should stop imposing such fines for infractions
at relatively low speeds. Some suggested that a fine so big was really a form
of taxation.
But
the idea that the rich should pay heavier fines did not seem to be much in question.
“It is an old system,” said Pasi Kemppainen, chief superintendent at the
National Police Board. “It may lead to high fines, but only for people who can
afford it.”
The
fines are calculated based on half an offender’s daily net income, with some
consideration for the number of children under his or her roof and a deduction
deemed to be enough to cover basic living expenses, currently 255 euros per
month.
Then,
that figure is multiplied by the number of days of income the offender should
lose, according to the severity of the offense.
Mr.
Kuisla, a real estate millionaire, was clocked speeding near the Seinajoki
airport. Given the speed he was going, Mr. Kuisla was assessed eight days. His
fine was then calculated from his 2013 income, 6,559,742 euros, or more than $7
million at current exchange rates.
Someone
committing a similar offense and earning about 50,000 euros a year, or $54,000,
none of it capital gains, and with no young children, would get a fine of about
345 euros, or about $370. Someone earning 300,000 euros ($322,000), would have
to pay about 1,480 euros ($1,590).
Police
officials say that there are really very few tickets issued of this magnitude,
though they do not keep track.
Until
he was issued the speeding ticket, Mr. Kuisla used his Facebook page largely to
post pictures of his winning horses or the lobbies and bars of the hotels he
owns. But last month Mr. Kuisla,
61, took to Facebook with 12 furious posts in which he included a picture of
his speeding ticket (photo above) and a picture of what 54,024 euros could buy
if it were not going to the state coffers — a new Mercedes. He said he was
seriously considering leaving Finland altogether and his attention
focused on Finnish policies that he said discouraged entrepreneurs, apparently
a reference to the country’s progressive tax system and its high inheritance
taxes. High earners can face an income tax rate of more than 50 percent.
“Finland
is now an impossible country to live in for people with a large income and
wealth!” he posted. But online comments in newspapers suggested a strong
showing for the other side.
“This
says a lot about the times when the stinkingly rich can’t even take their fines
for crimes, but are immediately moving out of the country. Farewell, we won’t
miss you,” said one post in The Helsingin Sanomat, a daily newspaper and
website.
Mr.
Kuisla’s $58,000 ticket is not even the most severe speeding ticket issued in
recent years. According to another daily newspaper, Ilkka, Mr. Kuisla himself
got an even bigger fine in 2013 when he was going about 76 m.p.h. in a 50
m.p.h. zone. That ticket was for 63,448 euros, about $83,769 at the time.
Bigger
yet was the ticket issued to a 44-year-old Nokia executive in 2002, when he was
caught blowing through Helsinki on his Harley motorcycle and was hit with a
$103,600 fine, based on a $12.5 million yearly income.
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In Vihti, a
manor owned by Reima Kuisla, a millionaire fined about $58,000 for speeding, a
penalty calculated by income. CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times
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