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Business leaders urge cut in Sweden’s capital gains tax

Sweden needs to cut its capital gains tax in order to maintain its competitiveness, according to a new report from an influential business group.

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) on Wednesday presented the findings of a commission appointed by the organization charged with proposing a series of reforms to Sweden’s tax system.

Highest on the group’s wish list is a major reduction in the tax on capital from its current rate of 30 percent, which is roughly twice as high as the average in 34 other countries against which Sweden competes, according to the commission.

“The tax is unnecessarily high in Sweden,” Rune Andersson, chairman of the board of Melby Gård farms and stables, and a member of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise’s tax commission, told the Dagens Industri newspaper.

“It leads to a shift in ownership in the country where today Swedish families account for less than 10 percent of direct ownership. Eventually we’ll only have institutional ownership.”

Andersson argued that private owners are more likely to take risks and put more effort into ensuring companies succeed and that a more equal balance of power between owners and management protects against excesses like controversial bonuses which have plagued a number of larger Swedish companies in recent months.

According to the commission, the tax burden facing business owners is a key question for the future of Swedish business.

“The problem in Sweden isn’t that we have too much private ownership. Rather, it’s that we have too little private ownership,” said tax commission member Carl Bennet, chair of the medical equipment manufacturer Getinge, in a statement.

“Instead of the situation today, where we have maybe 10 or 20 large owners, we ought to have at least 100 large owners, 500 mid-sized owners, and thousands of smaller ones. That would create more dynamism.”

The proposed reduction in the capital gains tax comes as part of a call for larger changes to the Swedish tax code to help stimulate risk-taking and ensure Sweden remains competitive internationally.

Other proposed changes include measures to make it easier and more profitable for companies to hire new employees as well as reduction in the taxes incurred when hiring highly-qualified foreign workers.

In addition, the commission wants to see the tax system simplified and made more transparent.

“Swedish politicians need to open their eyes and make it possible for Swedish companies to be competitive when the economy recovers,” said Urban Bäckström, chair of the commission and head of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, in a statement.

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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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