Long-term entrepreneur Niina Kuhta downloads direct words about the VAT change: “Turpa comes all the time” – 2024-04-19 20:58:01

Niina Kuhta became an entrepreneur 19 years ago. Miia Sirén

– Really starting to worry. More than a quarter of the price tag goes to the taxman, says entrepreneur and media personality Niina Kuhta.

Petteri Orpon The (kok) government decided to increase the general value added tax by 1.5 percentage points in a framework dispute. The general value added tax will rise to 25.5 percent, while it is now 24 percent.

Kuhta has been running her own specialty wedding and party dress store Niinatarta for 19 years. Although the years have asked the entrepreneur for creativity and problem-solving ability, the increase in value added tax came as a surprise to him.

– To be honest, I didn’t expect a direct 1.5 percent increase. It’s a tough climb. I don’t remember anything similar in my entrepreneurial journey, says Kuhta.

– Manufacturers raise prices, costs rise, the entrepreneur’s margin remains small. There are wage costs and increased rents, Kuhta continues.

Kuhta says that the overall picture worries him both as a consumer and as an entrepreneur.

– I want to try and find employment in Finland, but it is being made more difficult all the time.

– I am a person who travels a lot. It occurs to me that everything should be ordered from abroad, but of course I don’t want to do that. I hope that competitiveness will remain in Finland, and that everything possible would not be ordered from abroad, he says.

Kuhta says that the situation feels particularly bad after the crisis years.

– When you’ve just gotten back on your feet – who are and who aren’t, you get confused all the time, he says.

Who describes the prospects of the wedding business as good. It is a small specialty, but of course foreign online stores are constantly popping up.

– We do not compete with discount chains. We want a more ethical, better and more experiential, Kuhta linjaa.

More gas

Niinatar is not turning into just an online store. Kuhta describes that the business idea is based on the experience that is made in the store.

– I hope that I can continue for the next 20 years, says Kuhta.

When life and the government throw a wrench in Kuhta’s cart, he just steps on the gas.

– Many people put the straws in the bag, I’m obsessed with going in a different direction.

– We are moving to a four times bigger space on Mannerheimintie. It will be Scandinavia’s largest wedding and party dress store. I’m putting all my bangs into getting new energy. All or nothing, Who cares.

Kuhta exposes their choices and, for example, price policy to their customers on social media. That’s what he has done now.

– We are terribly open. It is good to open, for example, that the product has such and such a lot of tax.

– Taxes have to be paid, they benefit everyone. Of course, it’s a lot in products that are already valuable anyway, says Kuhta.