Her name is Emilia Leppänen. She is a Finn. I never met her. But what she said about the link between paying taxes and Finnish happiness in one of my questionnaires six years ago was imprinted on my brain forever. 

The questionnaire was part of a freelance journalistic project named Finnishness, which I launched in 2017 when I was in Finland. The Nordic nation was celebrating its 100 years of independence that year. I saw on the internet various events and celebrations that Finns planned to gear up for the grand occasion. 

My storytelling instinct kicked in. As part of Finnishness, I aimed to interview 100 Finns but finally managed to get 11. I started the project to get an insight into what it means to be a Finn, the Finnish way of life, and future hopes for the Nordic nation.      

While preparing the questionnaire, I found out on the internet that Finland and the other Nordic countries regularly ranked among the world’s happiest nations. In 2017, Norway was named the happiest country in the World Happiness Report while Finland took the fifth position. The three other Nordic nations ranked among the top 10. This intrigued me for several reasons. 

First, I never thought the definition of happiness could go beyond smiley faces resulting from positive emotions. Such emotions could be triggered by various events, such as achieving a goal or getting a reward. In that respect, I thought Bangladesh should have ranked happier than Finland because you would definitely meet more jolly faces in the former than the latter. 

Second, happiness is not part of the mainstream discussion in Bangladeshi society. Bangladeshis talk a lot about politics, religion, academic grades, government jobs, family affairs and feuds, and keeping up with the Joneses. These subjects never interested me much, and happiness sounded too stimulating to ignore. Finally, I never thought nations could be ranked according to their happiness levels. After all, happiness was subjective as it was related to emotions and no yardstick could be used to accurately measure it across cultures – or so I thought. 

The questionnaire was ready, and I got down to work. Through a friend, I managed to get Emilia as the first respondent. One of the questions was why Finns were so happy. Emilia, who was an upper secondary student and a fast food worker at the time, answered, “We have a great society, and I think we have achieved a lot just because we pay our taxes. Foreigners may think it is expensive to live in Finland, but most of us are paying taxes with great pleasure. Thankfully, this system has given us so much. That is the thing in the Nordic countries. They say happiness is about having the chance to affect your own life and to feel safe. Well, taxes have made this country perfect for that.”     

That a correlation could be drawn between paying taxes and happiness was as novel and unexpected for me as it could be. Coming from a country like Bangladesh where the majority of people are reluctant to pay taxes, I could not fathom how you could be happy when the government took away a portion of your hard-earned money. Growing up, I noticed my father’s strong disinclination to pay taxes. We in the family would sometimes have brief and casual conversations about politics but not tax, as if it was outside the purview of Bangladeshi life or I was too young to understand anything about it. 

Besides, paying taxes was not as big a deal at the time in Bangladesh as it is now. I paid taxes for FY22 for the first time, though I started my working life in 2013. The government’s stance on ensuring tax compliance and punishing evaders became increasingly stricter only in recent years. From FY24, Bangladeshis are required to show proof of submission of their tax return to access 44 types of services. Nevertheless, the majority of Bangladeshis do not pay taxes with “great pleasure,” unlike what Emilia said was the case in Finland.  

Another part of her response, where she linked paying taxes to having the chance to affect one’s own life and feeling safe, was no less astonishing. It was a far cry from the prevailing Bangladeshi sentiment that taxes only fatten the public purse and the corrupt administration plunders that while citizens barely get any benefit. If Bangladeshis are asked to mention something that enables them to affect their own lives and feel safe, there is not even the remotest possibility that they would say tax. 

They think taxes are not utilised properly mainly because they do not see any significant benefit in their lives. Moreover, they see that the rich can get away with tax evasion while the middle class and low-income groups face trouble and harassment. It is a deep distrust of the system that makes the citizens loath to pay taxes. Having my upbringing in such a culture, I now found a citizen of Finland who not only derived great pleasure from paying taxes but also thanked the Finnish system for giving her “so much” in return. 

What is this “so much” that Emilia gets from the Finnish state? That is a very long list, but I would mention four key elements – free healthcare, free education, unemployment benefit, and pension. I see these as the core building blocks of human happiness regardless of a person’s nationality, culture, and creed. By duly paying their taxes, every Finn is eligible for these benefits. The universality is the most beautiful thing as you do not have to be a socially/politically privileged Finn to enjoy all these.  

Will Bangladeshis pay taxes with “great pleasure” if the government starts offering such wide-ranging benefits? My educated guess is yes. Will they be as happy as Finns then? That needs to be researched. But I would always sign up for this tax-based happiness scheme unhesitatingly because I know once the state offers the core building blocks of happiness in return for my taxes, I can take care of the rest myself. 

Mahmudul Islam is a journalist and the host of The Finnophile Podcast on YouTube.