Finland is commonly known as a country of it’s wellbeing and many good things like the education standards we have here and the great healthcare system we are provided. This list could go on and on. Despite all of this for me as a bartender and a entrepreneur in importing business we have just as many crazy regulations and laws to make our life in the alcohol industry just a bit more frustrating and complicated. That is why I want to point out a few idiotic things in our system and alcohol laws.

Way Too High Alcohol Tax Rate

At least a few times a week I find myself in a situation where I hear people asking me how is it possible that alcohol is so expensive in Finland and they just don’t realize how they are paying multiple times more on a drink than they did just a week ago in Spain. Well, the reason is quite simple – we have a very high rate in our alcohol tax.

For a 0,7 l bottle of gin with 40% ABV I have to pay 12,754€ alcohol tax (0,7 l x 40 x 0,4555) and obviously 24% VAT. Then of course I have to buy the bottle from the producer, pay the transportation fees and add my own profit to the price. This is the main reason why we pay much more from alcohol than let’s say our friends in Spain.

This is also probably one of the key reasons why Finnish people rather take their money to Estonia and bring home vans full of beer and spirits than go to local store. But not to worry, Finnish government has a solution: They are planning to raise the alcohol tax a bit more. I wouldn’t see this as a right solution, but hey, what would I know about it.

In May our importing company used 24,3% of the revenue in paying alcohol taxes.

The Alcohol Monopoly

According to European Union laws all kind of monopolies should be banned. Unfortunately this is not the situation in Finland. Only one (excluding restaurants and bars) allowed of selling alcohol over 4,7% ABV is governments own alcohol monopoly called Alko. For a small importer it’s quite difficult to get a product through Alko’s selection process and becoming a regular product is a true challenge.

At the moment it’s not even allowed for a brewery or distillery to sell their own products for the people visiting them. For me this is ridiculous. In a perfect world we would brake down this nonsense monopoly and let Finnish people set up their own spirit stores through a certain license. Would this take down government’s income? No. It would bring us more jobs, enrich our culture and probably lead into more tax income as well.

Finland it’s time to wake up.

The Alcohol Law Itself

This is where it all comes down to. Our alcohol regulations and laws are totally out of date. When working as a bartender I’m not allowed to sell a person two mojitos but if it happens so that there would be a group of three at the bar I can sell them a bottle of Vodka instead. This makes sense doesn’t it?

Doubles are banned. Why wouldn’t they be?

Bars have to use measurements when pouring spirits and not just any jigger is okay for the job – these measurements have to be approved and stamped by the government and we actually do have supervisors making surprise visits in bars to check out that everything is done correctly. Usually these visits happen during the busiest hours on weekends and takes away one of the managers for at least half an hour. This of course leads into lost sales for the bar.

This list could go on for ages. The main point here is that our alcohol laws are made by people who have no actual experience from the industry. I would like to see alcohol companies, restaurant owners and advocacy groups be part of the process and discussion how alcohol laws should be done and not just a bunch of people making things more difficult just for the sake of doing something.

Of course certain boundaries are necessary, but in order to get economics growing again we should try to avoid all additional regulations and instead try to make it easier for people to make it than break it.

F for Finland and frustration