Posted on 04/29/2015 5:50:54 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
In most countries, taxes are progressive, so the more you make, the higher your taxes. In contrast, most parking and speeding tickets are about what you did, not about how much you earn. But in Finland, you might pay for speeding based on the size of your fortune. That is what happened to Mr. Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman who was fined 54,024 euros (about $58,000) for speeding. He wasn’t even going terribly fast, although his clocked 64 miles per hour did exceed the posted 50 mph limit. The whole idea of a progressive fine based on one’s income may seem odd. The $58,000 speeding ticket is reminiscent of a Chicago car parked at O’Hare airport that ran up a whopping $105,000 in tickets. It wasn’t one ticket, but an accumulated 678 tickets before the car was finally towed. Still, one good thing about a $105,000 parking ticket was fixing it for $4500. A lawsuit ended up whittling down the $105,000 to a much more modest $4,500.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Many of these kinds of fines in Finland and Sweden, and for a lot more than $58K. The Kuisla story is about five years old.
This ticket is recent, but it isn’t his first.
Mr. Kuisla’s $58,000 ticket is not even the most severe speeding ticket issued in recent years. According to another daily newspaper, Ilkka, Mr. Kuisla himself got an even bigger fine in 2013 when he was going about 76 m.p.h. in a 50 m.p.h. zone. That ticket was for 63,448 euros, about $83,769 at the time.
Bigger yet was the ticket issued to a 44-year-old Nokia executive in 2002, when he was caught blowing through Helsinki on his Harley motorcycle and was hit with a $103,600 fine, based on a $12.5 million yearly income.
hehe
http://www.newser.com/story/62231/finland-land-of-the-200k-speeding-ticket.html
...A sausage heir going 50 in a 25mph zone holds the record for steepest fine, at $204,000.
It’s kinda an old story but interesting to read it again.
I would take my money and move!
Not an old story, but a repeated event by the same man.
The solution for this problem is obvious. Chauffeurs.
You mean the guy did it again??!!
See post #4
I am against monetary fines for misdemeanor crimes. They overly penalize the poor while being no penalty at all for the rich. A $100 fine is nothing to a rich family, yet that same fine could mean a poor family doesn’t eat this week.
Community service penalizes people equally as time is equally valuable to all. Hours spent at community service picking up trash is equally inconvenient & embarrassing to all.
Unfortunately, community service may produce spotless public spaces, get the attention of rich & poor alike, but it can’t line the pockets of politicians & their cronies, can’t pay for lavish conferences & junkets, so community service will always be accompanied by fines.
Funny how % if income isn’t “fair” to the Marxists when it comes to a flat rate on income taxes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.