On September 29, the Finnish government announced measures to improve the competitiveness and operating conditions of the domestic forestry sector, announcing that from 2011 the industry will benefit from energy tax refund schemes, bringing taxation on energy in line with key competitor countries.
The government also announced further support through broad-based development projects focusing on wood products marketing, increasing international operations and product development.
Bioenergy projects will also be furthered through development projects focusing on new technology and new forest industry products. Energy support will also be granted for investments in plants utilising wood energy. Support for the harvesting and chipping of energy wood will be added to meet growing targets.
According to the Finnish government funding for the projects will be allocated from the 2010 budget, which will amount to EUR60-80m in the first year of its introduction, 2011.
Finland is trying to reduce its dependence on imported lumber following Russia’s announcement that it would introduce an 80% tax on lumber exports in order to encourage lumber to be processed domestically. After Scandinavian lumber mills pleaded with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia agreed to postpone the tax until Autumn 2009, allowing the Finnish government to further develop its domestic felling industry.
In another announcement in September 2009, Russian economics minister Elvira Nabiullina said that it would further be deferred and would not be introduced during 2010, stating that it remained a ‘prickly’ issue in cooperation between Russia and Finland.
"Most [Russian] regions have asked for duties to remain the same, but many also ask for them to be lowered now that the crisis has worsened the situation," she said at the time.
The Finnish energy tax refund scheme will be introduced in 2011, while the projects will begin from next year.
A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining tax-sheltering arrangements for investors, including Venture Capital, Forest Finance and Film Finance in a number of key jurisdictions, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report5.asp
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