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TetraPak billionaire offers Borg unsolicted tax policy advice

Hans Rausing, the self-exiled Swedish billionaire who founded the TetrPak packaging empire, has taken the liberty of advising finance minister Anders Borg on what he could do to attract more companies to Sweden.

“ABOLISH CORPORATE TAXES IN SWEDEN, dramatically, now,” writes Rausing in a letter faxed to Borg’s office at the Swedish Ministry of Finance.

The advice comes following a budget present recently by Borg’s British counterpart, Alistair Darling, which included a proposal to introduce a 50 percent income tax band for Britain’s highest earners (those earning more than £150,000 ($218,000) a year.

Rausing, who moved to the UK to escape Sweden’s notoriously high taxes and whose 2009 net worth is estimated to be around $6 billion, was recently ranked by the Sunday Times as Britain’s fifth richest person.

But the proposed UK tax hike has the octogenarian up in arms, and pleading with Borg to enact tax policies which will make Sweden more attractive to tax-wary corporations.

“England has just given Sweden a unique opportunity,” writes Rausing.

He suggests that abolishing Sweden’s corporate tax will “entice companies and entrepreneurs who want to leave England”, proceeding to portray himself as working hand-in-hand with Borg for the benefit of Sweden.

“The tax losses will be minimal if we succeed. Over half of a company’s turnover consist of taxes of various kinds, including employees’ income taxes, social fees, and value added tax,” he explains

“If these taxes can be estimated to be 20 times the revenue generated from tax on profits, then we only need to increase the budget by 5%. It looks easy because of this tax reform.”

Sweden’s corporate tax fell from 28 to 26.3 percent at the start of 2009 and generates about 100 billion kronor ($12.6 billion) annually, according to the Dagens Industri (DI) newspaper.

The finance ministry is now crafting a response to Rausing, DI reports, but is unlikely to take the aging billionaire up on his proposal as the ministry has no plans to reduce corporate tax any further.

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TAXES

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark’s employment allowance?

Denmark's government may soon announce changes to its tax reform plans, which will give all wage earners a bigger employment allowance. What is this and how will it affect foreigners' earnings?

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark's employment allowance?

What is the employment allowance? 

The Beskæftigelsesfradraget (from beskæftigelse, meaning employment, and fradrag, meaning rebate) was brought in by the centre-right Liberal Party back in 2004, the idea being that it would incentivise people to get off welfare and into a job.

Everyone whose employer pays Denmark’s 8 percent AM-bidrag, or arbejdsmarkedsbidrag, automatically receives beskæftigelsesfradraget. Unlike with some of Denmark’s tax rebates, there is no need to apply. The Danish Tax Agency simply exempts the first portion of your earnings from income taxes. 

In 2022, beskæftigelsesfradraget was set at 10.65 percent of income with a maximum rebate of 44,800 kroner. 

How did the government agree to change the employment allowance in its coalition deal? 

In Responsibility for Denmark, the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderate Party, the new government said it would set aside 5 billion kroner for tax reforms.

Of this, 4 billion kroner was earmarked for increasing the employment allowance, with a further 0.3 billion going towards increasing an additional employment allowance for single parents.

According to the public broadcaster DR, the expectation was that this would increase the standard employment  allowance to 12.75 percent up to a maximum rebate of 53,600 kroner. 

How might this be further increased, according to Børsen? 

According to a report in the Børsen newspaper, the government now plans to set aside a further 1.75 billion kroner for tax reforms, of which nearly half — about 800 million kroner — will go towards a further increase to the employment allowance. 

The Danish Chamber of Commerce earlier this month released an analysis in which it argued that by raising removing all limits on the rebate for single parents and raising the maximum rebate for everone else by 20,300 kroner, the government could increase the labour supply by 4,850 people, more than double the 1,500 envisaged in the government agreement. 

According to the Børsen, the government estimates that its new extended allowance will increase the labour supply by 5,150 people.  

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