<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> By the late 1960s, real effective taxation of income from individual firm ownership in Sweden approached 100 percent. A series of tax reforms has reversed this situation. This paper (1) elucidates the thinking behind the vision of creating a largely market-based system without wealthy capitalists and how that vision guided tax policy; (2) outlines and evaluates the changes in the tax code since the late 1970s, their empirical and intellectual basis, and their implications for the taxation of individual firm ownership; and (3) compares the size of the largest individual wealth holdings in the mid-1960s to their equivalents in the 2010s and discusses how the general public’s views have changed regarding sizeable income streams and wealth from business activity. Today, the tax code favors already wealthy individuals, while high labor income taxation combined with a high valuation of existing assets renders wealth accumulation difficult for persons with no initial wealth.</p></abstract>

By the late 1960s, real effective taxation of income from individual firm ownership in Sweden approached 100 percent. A series of tax reforms has reversed this situation. This paper (1) elucidates the thinking behind the vision of creating a largely market-based system without wealthy capitalists and how that vision guided tax policy; (2) outlines and evaluates the changes in the tax code since the late 1970s, their empirical and intellectual basis, and their implications for the taxation of individual firm ownership; and (3) compares the size of the largest individual wealth holdings in the mid-1960s to their equivalents in the 2010s and discusses how the general public’s views have changed regarding sizeable income streams and wealth from business activity. Today, the tax code favors already wealthy individuals, while high labor income taxation combined with a high valuation of existing assets renders wealth accumulation difficult for persons with no initial wealth.

Taxation of Swedish Firm Owners: The Great Reversal from the 1970s to the 2010s

Nordic Tax Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Taxation of Swedish Firm Owners: The Great Reversal from the 1970s to the 2010s"}

By the late 1960s, real effective taxation of income from individual firm ownership in Sweden approached 100 percent. A series of tax reforms has reversed this...

Taxation of Swedish Firm Owners: The Great Reversal from the 1970s to the 2010s

Article Category: Article

Published Online: Jun 12, 2017

Page range: 26 - 46

Received: Feb 03, 2017

Accepted: Mar 31, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ntaxj-2017-0002

Keywords
Owner-level taxation, Entrepreneurship, Institutions, Sweden, Tax policy

© 2017 M. Henrekson

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Taxation of Swedish Firm Owners: The Great Reversal from the 1970s to the 2010s

Article Category: Article

Published Online: Jun 12, 2017

Page range: 26 - 46

Received: Feb 03, 2017

Accepted: Mar 31, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ntaxj-2017-0002

KeywordsOwner-level taxation, Entrepreneurship, Institutions, Sweden, Tax policy

© 2017 M. Henrekson

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Owner-level taxation, Entrepreneurship, Institutions, Sweden, Tax policy