---
title: "Dividend tax and the equity savings account 2.0 | Victor Snellman | Negotiator 212"
titleOriginal: "Osakesäästötil isommaksi | Victor Snellman | Neuvottelija 212"
episodeNumber: "212"
guest: "Victor Snellman"
datePublished: 2023-09-21
duration: "53:00"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["ownership_capital_tax","investing_markets"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guest leads an interest organisation for private shareholders and the episode argues its case, which the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/454-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman-neuvottelija-212"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep212-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman/
---
# Dividend tax and the equity savings account 2.0 | Victor Snellman | Negotiator 212

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=0s) Personal equity investing against the Finnish pension system
- [03:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=194s) Own investing brings security, and makes changing jobs easier
- [05:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=315s) The equity investor suffers regression inside an otherwise progressive system
- [07:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=430s) Finland's top capital income rate of 34 per cent is the third highest in Europe
- [07:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=459s) After corporation tax the combined dividend tax exceeds 40 per cent, and the avoir fiscal history
- [09:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=562s) Finland's present system grew out of a mistaken EU interpretation
- [10:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=649s) Euroclear's data shows the damage from abolishing avoir fiscal and the lift from the equity savings account
- [12:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=720s) Adults and children as shareholders: girls are saved for as much as boys
- [14:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=850s) What a perfect equity savings account would look like, from a Nordic comparison
- [16:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=1000s) The account's tax treatment, and what a young investor actually needs
- [20:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=1240s) Keeping Finns poor, or driving wealth out, is foolish
- [34:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=2061s) Solidium could sell options on its holdings rather than the shares
- [38:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=2298s) Exchangeable bonds
- [41:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=2485s) Fortum borrowing expensively from Solidium
- [44:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=2680s) The Shareholders' Association defends the small investor: the Ahlström-Munksjö case
- [47:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=2822s) Shareholders have collective power in the market and in politics
- [52:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8&t=3126s) Inner Circle: comparing educational paths and portfolios

## Summary

Victor Snellman, chief executive of the Finnish Shareholders' Association, joins Sami Miettinen. The load-bearing claim is structural: inside an otherwise progressive tax system, dividend taxation is regressive for the small investor — a private individual pays an effective rate above 40 per cent on top of corporation tax, while an owner above the 10 per cent threshold can receive dividends tax-free. The other half is the equity savings account and its limits, drawn from a Nordic comparison. Also Euroclear's shareholder counts, an alternative use of Solidium's portfolio through call options, and the association's work in the Ahlström-Munksjö case.

## The structural claim

Finland's income tax is progressive, but dividend taxation runs the other way for a small
investor: after corporation tax the combined effective rate exceeds 40 per cent, while an
owner above the 10 per cent threshold can receive dividends free of tax. Whether that is
justified is arguable; that it is regressive within a progressive system is not.

## The evidence that makes it concrete

Euroclear's shareholder counts show two policy changes as visible steps in one series —
the damage after avoir fiscal was abolished, and the lift when the equity savings account
arrived in 2020. That is about as close to a natural experiment as Finnish tax policy
offers.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Osakesäästötil isommaksi | Victor Snellman | Neuvottelija 212](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQUH4mq6zG8).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/454-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman-neuvottelija-212).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep212-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep212-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Dividend tax and the equity savings account 2.0 | Victor Snellman | Negotiator 212, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep212-osakesaastotil-isommaksi-victor-snellman/, 2023-09-21. For quotes include episode 212 and timestamp.