Finnish Women: Living and Working in Estonia, We Can Afford More

Sander Nõmmik
Author Sander Nõmmik
Categories

There are more than 6,000 Finns living in Estonia’s capital Tallinn. Many of them have lived here for years already, some are just moving to Tallinn to look for a job or for education, some are retired and just enjoy the life here.

Finnish women’s magazine Menaiset wrote an article about four really different Finnish women living in Tallinn. What the women find attractive about Tallinn are the quality of life, limited bureaucracy, e-services and the relatively low cost of life.

For example, Noora Olsson from Finland, living in Tallinn says she can afford a lot more in Tallinn than she could in Finland: taxi rides, a babysitter, dinners in the restaurants, beauty treatments. One of the things she also mentions is that the public transportation in Tallinn is free.

The Finnish community in Tallinn is close-knit and the Finns are proud to be Finnish. At the same time Tallinn has more European feel and rhythm than in Finland – eating outside and having more flexible working hours than in Finland. For some of the Finns it is just like being in Finland but still being abroad at the same time.

It is stressed that the taxation system in Estonia differs from that in Finland. That is one of the reasons why there are more than 4,500 companies run by Finns registered in Estonia: there is no tax on reinvested profits. The workers pay a flat 20 per cent income tax – however much they make. This means that in Estonia if you make more money, you get more money. In Finland everyone will have to calculate whether it is worth ask for a pay rise, because this may end in less money on the bank account.