Taxation of Partnerships - Economic general report for the Nordic Tax Research Council′s annual meeting on 22 May 2015 in Aarhus

From an economic perspective a partnership is an odd construction. Generally, an economist will distinguish between physical persons and companies. However, partnerships are a combination of a person and a company. This report will attempt to give an overview of how the taxation of partnerships affects the organization of businesses and the role played by partnerships in the business structure in the Nordic countries.

The Economic General Report is based on the Economic National Reports from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. This report will include relevant information from the four reports. It is not an exhaustive study of the effects of the tax treatment of partnerships. However, it will examine how taxation of partnerships changes the incentive to choose a certain form of organization and it will give an illustration on how the different tax rules in the Nordic countries work. Particularly, it seeks to identify asymmetries in the taxation of different types of company structures, and the role of partnerships in the business structure.