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Swedes don’t care about taxes but do worry about crime: poll

Sweden may have a reputation for high taxes but few Swedes worry over the matter and are much more likely to be fret over crime, a new study has shown.

Published: 14 October 2016 16:44 CEST
Swedes don't care about taxes but do worry about crime: poll
A man filing his Swedish tax return online. Photo: Bertil Enevåg Ericson/TT

The survey from pollsters Ipsos looked at 25 countries around the world, and found that only nine percent in Sweden think taxes are one of the three most worrying topics in their country. That made Sweden the second least tax-anxious country of all the nations polled, with only Peru (five percent) less bothered.

READ ALSO: So Sweden has high taxes? Not as high as you might think

Perhaps not coincidentally, Sweden was also the country least worried about financial and political corruption, with only eight percent of citizens in the country responding that it was one of the three issues which concerned them most. That was well below the global average of 33 percent.

Other issues the poll found Swedes to be generally nonplussed about were inflation (Sweden was the country least concerned about the matter with one percent) and poverty/inequality (where Swedes showed the third lowest concern at 28 percent).

So what do Swedes fret over? According to the Ipsos study, the country’s biggest concern is crime and violence (42 percent).

The field work for the Ipsos poll was carried out between August and September 2016, and there were several high-profile crime stories in Sweden around that time period, including the death of a young boy due to a grenade blast at Gothenburg apartment, and a series of summer car fires in Malmö.

The second biggest concern Swedes registered in the study was over immigration control (33 percent), echoing the heightened discussion of the topic in the country since it received a record 163,000 asylum applications in 2015.

The third biggest concern registered by Swedes was unemployment, somewhat surprising considering the country’s unemployment rate has been on a downward curve in recent years.

A final point of note was that Sweden was the European country in the study most worried about climate change, and the third most concerned about it in the world (joint with Australia).

The topic is an important one in green-keen Sweden, which recently set aside 1.8 billion kronor ($210 million) to initiatives focusing on the environment and climate change in its latest budget.  

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MONEY

How to avoid falling victim to tax scams in Sweden

Sweden's tax agency, Skatteverket, warns of an increase in scams when it's time for Swedish tax-payers to declare their taxes.

Published: 12 March 2024 13:40 CET
How to avoid falling victim to tax scams in Sweden

Anyone who earned more than 22,208 kronor last year received their tax returns digitally last week, marking the start of tax season.

That also means an expected peak in tax-related scams, Skatteverket warns.

Most of the scams are so-called phishing scams, meaning attempts to steal the victims’ personal information. Fraudsters may for example email a person, pretending to represent Skatteverket, and ask them for, among other things, their banking details.

“We’re seeing these in all channels. They use fake emails, SMS, letters and in some cases even phone calls. It is particularly common in tax declaration times – just when we’re about to send out the tax returns, the e-service opens and it’s possible to declare – but above all when it’s time for tax rebates,” Jan Janowski, a Skatteverket expert, told Swedish news agency TT.

A scam email might for example state that you’re entitled to a tax rebate and that you should click a link to receive it. Don’t click any links, open any attachments or reply to the message. Skatteverket advises that you immediately delete the email or text message.

Another common scam is that you receive a text message claiming to be from Skatteverket, telling you that you owe them money and you need to log in to calculate the amount. The website you’re urged to log in via does not belong to Skatteverket. Don’t click the link.

The agency stresses that it never asks people for their banking details. The exception is that you may be asked for your bank account information if you log into Skatteverket’s website to declare your taxes, but that always first requires you to log into the site.

To receive your tax rebate, you need to inform Skatteverket of your bank account number. You do this not by clicking a link in an email or SMS, but by logging into their website using a digital ID, for example BankID, and submitting your details. Only do this on your own initiative. If someone calls you and asks you to log in with your BankID during the phone call, don’t do it. That’s another common scam.

Skatteverket will also never call you to ask for your bank account or credit card number.

It will be possible to declare your taxes from March 19th. You’ll receive any tax rebate you’re owed by mid-April or early June, depending on when you submit your tax return. These are the dates when fraudsters are likely to attempt the most scams.

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