Day-fine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The day-fine (Finnish: päiväsakko, Swedish: dagsbot) is a unit of fine payment that, above a minimum fine, is based on the daily personal income. A crime is punished with incarceration for a determined number of days, or with fines. As incarceration is a financial punishment, in the effect of preventing work, a day-fine represents one day incarcerated. It is argued to be just, because if both the high-, and low-income population are punished with the same jail time, they should also be punished with a proportionally similar income loss.

[edit] Finland

The day-fine is 6 euros at minimum, or half of daily disposable income. There is no maximum day-fine. It is calculated from the yearly income taxation data, subtracting taxes, legally mandatory insurance fees and 255 euros per month of basic living costs, as 1/60 of monthly income. It is adjusted for property over 85000 euros and for dependants. At maximum, 120 day-fines can be used, or 240 if they result from different crimes.

Day-fines can be given for infractions mentioned in the criminal law. Minor infractions are punished with fines given in euros, not days. However, reckless endangerment in traffic, for example, is a crime, not an infraction. Speeding may fulfill the criteria of reckless endangerment and is then punished with day-fines. There have been widely publicised cases, where very high-income people have been handed speeding tickets with six-digit figures. Courts have allowed for some adjustment for highly variable income, such as stock options, such that three years, instead of one, is the basis for calculation. Nevertheless, taking highly variable income as an exception, an individual's day-fine has no maximum and has never been reduced.

Although the income is reported by the motorist, the police can check the taxable income on the stop with a SMS query to the taxation records database.