National Board of Customs

The current paper covers one of the tax optimization schemes popular in Estonia – full or partial replacement of labor income with dividends. Such scheme is used by some owner-managers as the regulation concerning emoluments of members of management body is very flexible. The main incentive to use the scheme is to reduce tax burden as dividends are only subject to income tax but emoluments to the members of management body are also taxed with the social tax. Basic results show that considered schemes are widespread. We estimate that due to replacement of salaries and wages with dividends there was a significant loss in social tax revenues in Estonia during 2005-2008. In majority of the sectors average dividends of ownermanagers in 2008 were higher than their average salaries. Also, the average amount of owner-managers’ emoluments in majority of the sectors was below the national monthly average salary, in some cases it was even below subsistence level

Objective: To study the incidence of health-related conditions and observational failures/distraction (OFD) as an immediate cause for fatal motor vehicle accidents (FMVA) and to correlate them with driver's age. Methods: Retrospective study of all FMVA in Finland secondary to OFD from January 1995 to December 2005 and FMVA secondary to a disease attack/incapacity (DA) from January 2003 to December 2004. The data were based on the final investigation reports of the Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre. The cases were categorized into the three following groups: 1) vehicle crashes due to OFD of the driver, 2) pedestrian-vehicle accidents due to the driver's OFD, and 3) pedestrian-vehicle accidents due to the pedestrian's OFD. In the second part, 54 autopsy reports from FMVA resulting from a DA of the driver between the years 2003–2004 were revisited and the health-related causes of the accident were investigated. Results: Oldest age group (> 65 years) had the highest prevalence of FMVA secondary to an OFD. We estimated that in 20–30% of all FMVA affecting subjects > 65 years an impairment of cognitive functions might have played a role. Analysis of the DA that the inspection teams had concluded to have been the immediate risk factor for the FMVA revealed that these accidents accounted for 10.3% of all FMVA in 2003–2004. Cardiovascular diseases were most often involved. Conclusions: OFD as an immediate cause of FMVA began to play a role from the age of 60 years onwards. The role of health conditions as a cause of FMVA was higher than expected. Cardiovascular disease (70%) was found to be the leading medical condition that inhibited the driving task among the DA related to FMVA in Finland.

There is potential for the normal faecal flora of humans to be augmented by resistant strains of bacteria, acquired from food. The frequency of resistance in the aerobic Gram-negative faecal flora is often very high. The purpose of this study was to find out whether food strains contribute to this resistance. One hundred and thirty-seven vegetable samples were studied, 48 of Finnish origin, and 89 imported. From these samples, 535 different strains of bacteria belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae were isolated. Enterobacter spp. were most frequent, Escherichia coli was rare. Sensitivity testing was undertaken only for isolates with different biotypes and antibiograms. No resistance was found to cefotaxime, aztreonam, imipenem, gentamicin, nalidixic acid or ciprofloxacin. The frequency of trimethoprim resistance was 0.2%, sulphamethoxazole resistance 1.3%, and tetracycline resistance 5.5%. These frequencies were much lower than those found in faecal flora. Chloramphenicol and cefuroxime resistance was found in 12% and 14% of isolates, respectively. The only statistically significant differences between the Finnish and imported strains were for these two; the Finnish isolates were more resistant to cefuroxime, whereas the imported ones were more resistant to chloramphenicol. Consequently, bacteria from vegetables are not responsible for the high prevalence of resistant Enterobacteriaceae in faecal flora in Finland; they are in fact unusually susceptible to the antibiotics studied. Multiresistance profiles, typical of strains associated with human activities, were not identified in these isolates.

A thermoluminescence (TL) method was applied for the import control of irradiated foods. The method is based on the determination of the TL of mineral contaminants in foods. Detection of irradiation was incorporated in official Finnish control procedures in spring 1990. For foodstuffs with a reduced microbe content and in which no fumigant residues are found, possible irradiation is investigated by the TL method. The minerals are separated from the foods in different ways: picking is used for spices; water rinsing for herbs, spices, berries and mushrooms; high-density liquid to separate the organic material from the mineral fraction in seafood; and carbon tetrachloride for foods forming gels with water. To date about 140 food samples have been analysed for control purposes: 50 samples of herbs and spices, 25 samples of berries and mushrooms and 65 samples of seafood. Of these, 14 samples of herbs and spices and 5 samples of seafood were shown to have been irradiated. Differences in TL intensity between irradiated and unirradiated samples were at least 1 and usually 3-4 orders of magnitude.

The instructions of the Finnish agricultural statistics, Board of Survey and communal taxation measurements for classification of land utilization types differ from each another, thus making it difficult to compare and to control the preliminary data of statistics. Definitions of land utilization classes have been inadequate causing uncertainty in information about area. In the present investigation a proposal has been made for a new classification which would be better comparable than the former one with the classification of the Board of Survey as well as for a more detailed definition of land utilization types. The aim of the definitions has been to attain such characteristic features which enable drawing of a definite line between different land utilization types even when persons with little training are employed as collectors of the required information. Besides, the principle adhered to, when determining the class of land utilization, has been not to take into account the temporary use of land outside its regular use. The land area belonging to one agricultural enterprise (excluding waters) is divided according to the new proposal to the following main groups: I. Agricultural land 11. Cultivable land 111. Actual forest land IV. Waste land. The agricultural land is divided into the following groups according to its use 1. Garden (orchard and vegetable garden) 2. Field. 3. Permanent pasture on fields 4. Meadow (natural meadow). 5. Cleared pasture. 6. Building site, roads, etc. The cleared pastures include enclosed treeless and stumpy pasture lands and in addition to these natural meadows similarly enclosed and permanently used as pasture. The cultivable land is divided into cultivable open peat moss and cultivable forest land. The latter together with the actual forest land forms the group which corresponds to the earlier forest land group. Proposed practice makes comparison with surveying areas easier.