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TAXES

Tax agency swamped with online declarations

The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) website struggled to cope on Sunday as large numbers of people filed last minute online declarations, with many greeted with a message to try again in 15 minutes.

Monday is deadline day for the filing of Swedish tax returns and many elect to use the option to declare online. The agency website has however proved ill-equipped to deal with the large number of people out in the eleventh hour.

“There is no technical fault, there are simply too many trying to declare at the same time,” said Kay Kojer at the tax agency.

The problem experienced by those filing their taxes is encountered when people try to log in using their electronic bank identifications and is primarily affecting customers at Swedbank, Danske Bank and Handelsbanken.

Kojer pointed out that 450,000 people declared online in the penultimate day last year, which is typically the busiest of all despite declaration notices having been sent out back in March.

This year the agency expects the number of online declarations to have exceeded 500,000 on Sunday, of which a fifth log in using the electronic bank identification system.

Kojer was keen to stress that people still have the whole of Monday to file their declarations and advises that they just keep trying or use one of the alternative identification methods.

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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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