Donees.

Gift tax is levied on the following property (received as gift):

• any property, if the donor or the beneficiary was resident in Finland at the time when the gift was made;
• real property situated in Finland and shares or other rights in a corporate body where more than 50 % of the total gross assets of the company consist of real property situated in Finland.

Insurance benefits which are paid without consideration under a beneficiary clause and which are not subject to income tax are also treated as gifts.

The tax is levied on the market value of the gift. In cases where the financial consideration in a contract of sale or exchange does not exceed three‑quarters of the current price of the property sold or exchanged, the difference between the current price and the consideration is regarded as a gift.

Exemptions:

Gift tax is not levied on household effects received as gifts and intended for the beneficiary's or his family's personal use and with a value not exceeding € 4,000, on gifts received for the beneficiary's education or maintenance in a form which prevents him from using them for other purposes and on other gifts with a value less than € 4,000. If a person receives such gifts from the same donor within a period of three years, the gifts are aggregated for the purpose of computing the € 4,000 limit and the gift tax liability. If a person has, within three years before his tax liability has begun, received one or more taxable gifts from the same donor, they must be taken into account when the tax is calculated. The gift tax paid earlier is credited in such cases.

These are the rates for tax class I. Such tax class implies the following relationship between the doneeand or the donor: spouse, child, adopted child or in some cases also the fiancé(e), father, mother, adoptive parents and direct heir of a child or an adopted child. Class I rates are also applied to spouses who have been married to each other previously and who have had or are having a child together.

Tax class II applies to other relatives and all non‑related persons. The tax rates in tax class II are the following:

The liability to pay gift tax begins when the beneficiary takes possession of the gift. A gift tax return must filed within three months after the gift is received.

By the provincial tax offices on the basis of gift declarations submitted by the receiver.

There is actually only one tax, which is based on the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act and has two tax objectives, inheritances and gifts. Same tax rates and tax classes are applied to both inheritances and gifts.

Also in the following matters the gift tax is similar to the inheritance tax: credit given for foreign gift tax, exempt persons mentioned in items 1 and 2 under the exemptions heading in ‘Inheritance tax', class I rates applied if the regulations of the Income Tax Act concerning spouses (see Inheritance tax) are applicable to the donor and the donee and the valuation of the property.

A taxpayer may demand that part of the gift tax is not charged under the following conditions (change of generation rules):

• the chargeable gift contains a farm or a business or a part of them (including at least 10 % of shares or rights giving title to a farm or business)
• the donee continues to run a farm or a business on such a farm or in such a business unit using the assets which he has received as an inheritance or gift
• that part of the tax corresponding to the abovementioned property is more than € 850.

Non-residents:

For the purposes of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act, a person is deemed resident in Finland if he has his main abode in Finland.