New Swedish government in trouble

foofighter

foofighter

Jedi Council Member
After the september elections in Sweden the new rightwing government is in place, and they are already under fire. The new ministers are apparently not used to being scrutinized, because a brief look at their economy has brought up some interesting questions, and even more interesting answers.

The trade minister Maria Borelius has used nanny services without paying taxes for it. She claimed that she "couldn't afford it", but a look at her finances seem to indicate otherwise, and in general it's a pretty lame excuse.

The culture minister Cecilia Steg
 
Sweden is the land of super-high taxes. As far as I knew the Swedes actually paid them, but I guess there are some that didn't quite pay all of them. The rest of the people won't be very happy about that, especially there in Sweden, where after-tax dollars are hard to come by.

If the tax rate is a flat 60% (I'm not joking, it could be even worse in Sweden), you keep 40% of your income. If someone else is paying a 50% rate by evading some taxes, they keep 50% of their income, an extra 10% of the total. But that 10% is actually an extra 25% of what the guy who pays all his taxes has after-tax. In other words, that tax evader gives himself a 25% increase in after-tax income. (10% / 40% = 25%) The effect of tax evasion (in giving the evader an advantage over everyone else) is greater if everyone is being heavily taxed to death, as they are in Sweden.

I can see why this is a big scandal.
 
Your numbers are a "wee" bit exaggerated (the taxes are not THAT high), but yeah, it's a big scandal. But the scandal is not so much the money itself, but the way the ministers have answered, or not answered the questions. They simply don't understand that they have done something wrong, although some of them are adjusting to reality to get people off their back. Heads will fall though, that's fer shure. Watching this ponerological process in real-time is truly fascinating.

Here's the current status:
* Trade minister Maria Borelius has used "black" nanny services, i.e. not paid taxes for them ("I couldn't afford it"). She has also not paid the TV license for a long time. Her summer estate turns out to be owned by company in Jersey, which is infamous for its tax evasion possibilities.
* Culture minister Cecilia Steg
 
Regarding the tax rate: I remember talking to someone from the Netherlands who said his tax rate was around 60%. That probably includes all taxes added together. Sweden is famous for high taxes so I thought the rate there would be even higher.

Cecilia said "I didn't think they produced good services" but I guess she still could not overcome the temptation to have a TV! (At least in England, if you don't have a TV, you legitimately don't have to pay the TV tax.)

I really think that the only way to get hold of politicians is to make them personally accountable for their promises. They could promise not to be corrupt, to remove troops from Iraq, or whatever. Campaigns would be a whole different affair, if candidates could make "binding promises" that they took on personal liability for. They could also make "nonbinding statements", the usual BS that we get now, but I suspect nobody would pay any attention to it.
 
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