Can you trust what Finnish officials tell you?

As we have been having this trouble with KELA, we keep hearing surprises every day.
The recent news is that the court in Turku ruled against the tax office,

http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/arkistot/kotimaa/2007/06/540203

Basically, the shipyard workers received instruction from the tax office and acted accordingly. And then later on the tax office had a different intrepretation of the cases and demanded tax back-payment.

The arguement is about "luottamuksen suoja", in other words, "luottamusperiaate", the "principle of trust". Practically it is about the idea that everyday life citizens should be able to trust the advices and instructions given by the tax office officials, even though the advices and instructions are given verbally only.

That should be a pretty basic matter of everyday life, right? If I do not know about an official matter, then I go and ask the officials, and act accordingly. And to be sure about the information and instruction I have just received, I do not need to be a paranoid, conspiracy theorists, overly pessimistic or even having obsessive-compulsive disorders to ask about the same matter from different officials, again and again.

But then, looking at this court case, our trouble, and so many other friends who have had problems with KELA, seemingly, there is no trust. Well, so, where does this distrust stop then? What about the immigration office? The police? When you need to build a house, get a driving license, get a hunting permit, register your new marriage, adopt a child ... ?

As for KELA, (my favorite agency nowadays!) a friend was just telling about an example. When his wife was still studying, she shared an apartment with several people: a university student of economics, one of sociology, one of laws and one that works in KELA itself. One day one of them received a two-page letter about some instructions for a certain student money matter. All of them TOGETHER could not understand what the instructions were about.

Well, even with the instructions on paper, you cannot even seem to understand what the officials tell you, maybe putting trust in phone conversation or verbal communication is already a bit far off. As shipyard works, students, pregnant women, private entrepreneurs, normal taxpayers or even KELA own workers cannot quite trust what the officials tell them, this is sure a sorry situation.