Services | The mail sent by the authorities will primarily become digital

Finland all letters sent by public authorities are to become primarily digital from the beginning of 2026.

The change aims to save at least 50 million euros in the authorities’ mailing costs. The change concerns, for example, decisions and notifications made by the authorities.

The change is based on the government program, and it is ongoing Digi first implementation project At the Digital and Population Information Agency (DVV). The agency presented the project at an information session on Friday.

It would still be possible to receive official mail also in paper form if desired. In addition, for those who have not previously identified themselves with the authorities’ electronic services, official letters would still automatically come on paper.

“If a person doesn’t deal with official services digitally, he won’t receive official mail digitally either,” says the head of the Digi first project, a leading expert Annette Hotari for STT.

Electric official mail would come after the reform Suomi.fi– service, where logging in requires strong identification. This is done either with online banking credentials, a mobile certificate or a certificate card.

From the Suomi.fi service, you can already choose whether you want to change your paper official mail to electronic format. According to DVV, there are currently around 1.4 million such persons in Finland. Last year, the authorities sent them a total of approximately 13.4 million messages via the Suomi.fi service.

The goal of the reform is that from the beginning of 2026, more than four million Finns would receive electronic official mail.

The goal is based on the fact that last year, around 4.3 million people used a digital service of the authorities through Suomi.fi identification. For them, official mail would start going automatically in electronic form in 2026.

The savings in mailing costs targeted by the change are based on this potential number of users. Hotari believes that the 50 million euro savings goal set for the change may have even been cut to the bottom. For example, the Tax Administration alone aims to save ten million euros in mailing costs by switching to digital mail.

However, the final amount of savings depends on how many people return to using paper official mail.

Timo Salovaara, Director General of the Services Department of the Digital and Population Information Agency, spoke at the information session on August 22. At the event, information was given about Finland’s transition towards digital official communication in the coming years. Picture: Heikki Saukkomaa / Newspaper photo

The change even after that, you can still choose from the Suomi.fi service whether you prefer to receive your official mail on paper. According to Hotari, the notification does not need to be justified in any way, but can be done completely independently.

The arrival of traditional paper official mail can naturally be noticed by the door opening or by peeking into the mailbox.

Instead, you have to check the arrival of digital mail on the Suomi.fi service. According to Hotari, the user can also, if he wishes, inform the service of his email address, to which he wants to be notified of incoming official messages.

It is also possible to receive notifications about received official mail in the Suomi.fi mobile application. In addition, Hotari says that the implementation project will explore the possibility of sending notifications about incoming mail also by text message.