State-owned investment company Solidium paid the largest corporate tax bill of any limited liability company in Finland last year, according to data published by the Finnish Tax Administration on Wednesday. Meanwhile German pharmaceutical company Bayer was the largest corporate taxpayer overall.

Solidium, a holding company founded in 2008, owns a minor stake in numerous listed companies, including Sampo, Elisa, Nokia, Metso, Stora Enso, Valmet and Outokumpu. It paid over 95 million euros in taxes last year.

The next highest bills were paid by oil firm Neste (80m) and telecoms operator Elisa (69m).

Corporate tax is paid by limited companies and other entities, and represents about 20 percent of the company's taxable income. Some 70 percent of that tax goes to the state and the remaining 30 percent is allocated to the municipality in which each company is based.

The Covid crisis impacted various sectors differently. While net sales decreased for many, operating profits rose due to cost-cutting and state Covid subsidies.

According to research by Finnish business newspaper Kauppalehti, over half of companies saw their net profits rise by more than six percent.

The total amount of corporate tax paid by companies in 2020 was 5.4 billion euros-0.4 million euros less than the previous year.

Covid subsidies paid to companies by the state are deemed taxable income. This could be one reason why corporate tax revenues did not fall as much as anticipated last year.

International conglomerates paid the most taxes

Finland's Tax Administration provides information on companies that have paid over 5,000 euros in corporate taxes.

However, the list only includes limited liability companies. The rankings would change when taking taxes paid by business concerns such as conglomerates and multinational firms into account.

According to estimates by Finance Finland (FFI), a lobby group representing Finland's financial sector, German pharmaceutical company Bayer was the largest corporate taxpayer in the country last year, paying 124 million euros in taxes.

Finnish retail conglomerate K Group came in second, with 118 million euros in corporate taxes, followed by Nordea, which paid 110 million euros.