english

Article in Economic Affairs (IEA) by Rainer Zitelmann and Anders Ydstedt.

“Attitudes towards the rich are far more positive in Sweden than in France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Attitudes towards the market economy are also more positive in Sweden than in all other European countries, except Poland. Although Sweden is perceived by some as a model of ‘democratic socialism’, it has been 50 years since that this was – almost – the case. Today, Sweden is one of the ten most economically free countries in the world, although income tax is still above average. Corporate taxes are moderate, however, and inheritance, gift, and wealth taxes have been abolished. This article presents the findings of two surveys conducted by Ipsos MORI in Sweden. The first survey focused on perceptions of the rich, the second explored attitudes towards the market economy and capitalism.”

Link to our article in Economic Affairs.

“From Adam Smith we learned that a farmer by specializing did not himself need to be baker, butcher and brewer. Specialization made products better and less expensive. The “extent of the market” increased, enabled by better and faster transportation. While in other areas central planning has been ruled out, in traffic it has become widely accepted. Today we see forces trying to regulate and limit free mobility of goods and services.” Presentation by Anders Ydstedt at ”The Austrian School of Economics in the 21st Century” at Oesterreichische Nationalbank, OeNB, Vienna, Austria.

Link to conference here
Link to presentation here

All effort made by French farmers; selecting the fruit, cultivating the soil, harvesting the grapes, crushing, pressing, storing, perhaps blending and finally bottling of the finished liquid is totally worthless until someone drinks the product. Until consumption it is only water and rotten fruits. This must be the belief of those who thinks all value is created at consumption and not at production, such as the EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici

Read the full blog post here.

The Government’s looking at Sweden’s Vision Zero model, as part of its plans to overhaul the transport system. It is hoping to imitate Sweden, where the road toll has halved over the past two decades. Anders Ydstedt from the Royal Sweden Automobile Club told Kate Hawkesby a combination of factors have contributed to that decline.

“Better roads, we have separated traffic barriers, a push for better education and a push for enforcement and traffic regulation has been stricter.”

Listen to the interview here.

Austria, France and Germany together with other EU-countries made a proposal earlier this month to introduce an “equalization tax” on foreign internet companies. The justification for this tech tax is that companies such as Google, Facebook and Airbnb are not paying their fair share of taxes, and especially not in France and Germany.

Read my text on values4europe.com

Sweden might not have much to teach other countries about tax policy. The tax-to-GDP-ratio of 42.8 percent (2013) exceeds the OECD average by nearly 9 percentage points. Our marginal tax rate on labor income is the world’s highest, and the capital gains tax is almost twice as high as the average in the EU, OECD and the BRIC countries. That being said, the developments from the year 2000 until today might still be interesting even for foreign readers.

Read my article in Cayman Financial Review.

In 2004 the Swedish inheritance tax and gift tax was abolished by a unanimous vote in the Riksdag. In a new book ”Ten years without the Swedish inheritance tax. Mourned by no one – missed by few”, by Amanda Wollstad and myself, we tell the history of the inheritance tax, its abolition and what consequences it had on Swedish business owners and tax revenues.

Read the article on the IEA Blog here.