Santa Claus is facing bankruptcy as back taxes pile up for Dianordia in Finnish Rovaniemi
Father Christmas has just seven days to pay his back taxes – or he’ll be declared bankrupt.
Finnish tax authorities are locking horns with Dianordia, the company that offers children and other starry-eyed Christmas lovers from across the world a chance to meet the real Santa in his workshop.
The company owes €200,000 to the tax man, and now faces a real threat of bankruptcy following dropping numbers of overseas tourists in recent years.
Dianordia is just one of three similar operations in Finnish Rovaniemi, the Lapland town near the Arctic Circle which is, of course, where Santa Claus lives.
Sanna Kärkkäinen, head of Rovaniemi tourism and marketing, told Finnish public service television YLE that this was “sad news”:
But this kind of thing happens in business. You just have to get used to it. This is just one of the companies that provides a backdrop for Santa Claus’s presence.
Rovaniemi is still Santa Claus’s town.