For the last two days, the cabinet has gathered in the government’s banquet hall to negotiate the budget. Today, consensus was reached on the budget proposal for 2026. The government has taken measures to support the ongoing economic recovery and to safeguard conditions for long-term growth.
There will be tax deductions for low- and medium-income taxpayers, increases to child allowances and a decrease of the highest marginal tax rate to around 52 per cent. Conditions for running a business will be improved by reducing the corporate tax rate to 18 per cent from 2027. Investments in infrastructure, competence, and research and development will continue.
“The government is now ensuring that the national economy stands on stable ground and will guarantee well-being now and in the future,” explains SFP Party President, Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz.
During negotiations, SFP managed to prevent many of the proposed cuts that the Finance Minister presented a week earlier. Reductions had been suggested to the central government’s transfers to municipalities, among other things. SFP was successful in taking these cuts off the table.
“This is particularly important, as they would undoubtedly have affected education,” Adlercreutz explains.
“I am also pleased that we reached a solution wherein no cuts are made to social security, support to families with children, or the wellbeing services counties. The aim was that the adjustments should have as little impact as possible on ordinary Finns’ everyday lives. It was also important that we managed to raise the value of the maternity package to EUR 210,” Adlercreutz says.
After the negotiations, SFP was able to ensure that economic aid was not reduced and that cuts to NGOs on the social side were scrapped.
“The funding of civil society organisations was safeguarded by redistributing a sum of EUR 20 million within the aid budget. The corresponding sum was transferred from the aid section to humanitarian crisis aid, leaving the total aid budget unchanged,” Adlercreutz explains.
“We also managed to safeguard Finland’s maritime security of supply, by taking the unfortunate discussion regarding manning costs off the agenda,” Adlercreutz says.
