Fewer artists among highest earners
Writers and classical conductors get rich, but Lauri "Rasmus" Ylönen tops pile
This year's tax statistics provide a minor setback for the arts and entertainment fraternity, as only eight artists make it into the Top 1000 based on earned income. In the previous year there were fifteen of them.
No artists broke through the EUR 1 million barrier. The wealthiest in terms of earned income was the vocalist and front-man for rock group The Rasmus, Lauri Ylönen, who collected EUR 580,332 last year.
Ylönen was followed by conductor/composer Leif Segerstam, author Arto Paasilinna, TV-entertainer and choreographer Marco Bjurström, singer Kari Tapio, novelist Laila Hirvisaari (known to many as Laila Hietamies), another classical conductor in Sakari Oramo, and artist Juhani Palmu.
Even if the actual number in the Top 1000 declined, there is hardly a need to speak of a "starving-in-the-garret" syndrome: in 2003 it required EUR 258,000 to get onto the tail end of the list, while last year the magic figure was EUR 303,000.
A year ago, the success of Darude, Bomfunk MC's, HIM, and The Rasmus on the pop music front gave the list a new look, but in 2004 the old guard struck back somewhat, as the names above suggest.
Ville Valo, vocalist with love-metal outfit HIM, dropped out of the Top 1000, but again could hardly be described as living in straitened circumstances with earnings of more than EUR 270,000. Earnings in this field are usually directly related to the timing of an album, as royalties income provides the lion's share of earnings.
The two figures from symphonic metal band Nightwish who have been in the news recently, namely composer and keyboards player Tuomas Holopainen and the group's sacked vocalist Tarja Turunen, show up at opposite ends of the list: Holopainen earned just over 150,000 euros in 2004, while Turunen paid tax in Finland on earnings of just EUR 5,283.
This last figure points up the fact that a good many prominent artists and others do not in fact pay taxes in Finland. From the world of classical music, for example, neither star soprano Karita Mattila nor conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen are to be found, as they are both resident abroad.
The same goes for a great many Finnish sports personalities: many of them are plying their trade abroad, for example in the NHL in North America or in the English football leagues, or they have chosen to live in places like Monaco where rather less of their income is likely to pass to the tax authorities. Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen, for instance, will not be found among the lists of "top Finnish earners".
More on this subject:
 Fortum execs maintain strong foothold at top of income list
Top income-earners benefited from lower taxes in 2004
Foreign Minister Tuomioja most prosperous of Finnish political elite
Helsingin Sanomat
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