Response to interpellation 2022/23:97 on the work against tax evasion and tax avoidance
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the work against tax evasion and tax avoidance. M considers that the fight against tax evasion is a continued political priority that harms competition and welfare 1. M argues that the Swedish Tax Agency has sufficient resources with an appropriation of just over 8 billion kronor 2 3 and that resources have decreased as less work is done with pandemic-related controls 2 3. M emphasizes that the government prioritizes international cooperation 1 2 and that the population register is important for control 3. M emphasizes that the Moderate parliamentary group takes the issue seriously 4, that the work shall be intensified 4 and that they have presented a good budget 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! Mathias Tegnér has asked me if I consider the fight against tax evasion to be a priority and if I, in that case, intend to take any measures in the area. He has also asked how I intend to act to counteract any potential negative consequences for the work against tax evasion after the reduction of the Swedish Tax Agency's appropriation in the government's budget.
Tax evasion harms free and fair competition and withdraws resources from our common welfare. Countering tax evasion is therefore a continued political priority. In the budget bill for 2023, it is stated that the government prioritizes strengthening the authorities' work in countering tax evasion.
Both nationally and internationally, tax evasion and tax avoidance shall be combated with force. The Government therefore supports the measures that have previously been taken in this area and will continue to work actively with these issues in, for example, the OECD and the EU.
In the area of direct taxation, priorities under the Swedish presidency of the EU include, for example, work to promote good tax administration and proposals aimed at preventing tax evasion, tax avoidance, aggressive tax planning, and harmful tax competition, such as an update of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions on tax matters and the proposal for a directive on legal entities without substance. In addition, priority is also given to moving the work forward to further strengthen administrative cooperation regarding taxation, namely DAC 8.
DAC 8 was presented by the Commission in December 2022. The proposal, which has been sent for consultation, consists, among other things, of new rules on reporting and information exchange between Member States regarding crypto-assets.
Within the Government Offices, the report from the investigation on a new reporting obligation for payment service providers (SOU 2022:25) is currently being prepared. The investigation's proposals follow EU regulations. Also, the investigation Measures to prevent value-added tax fraud (dir. 2022:54), which is to be completed in 2024, shall propose measures to prevent VAT fraud.
Regarding the Swedish Tax Agency's appropriation for 2023, I want to emphasize that the majority of the reduction compared to last year is due to the fact that the Swedish Tax Agency had a temporarily higher appropriation during 2022 to handle transition support. But, for example, the supplement of 5 million kronor for 2023 remains so that the Swedish Tax Agency can effectively handle tasks from information exchange with other countries' tax administrations.
The Swedish Tax Agency has good opportunities to continue its important work against both national and international tax evasion and tax avoidance.
Mathias Tegnér (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Finance for the answer.
My interpellation is therefore about tax evasion and tax errors. The background to why I wrote it is precisely the de facto budget cut that I write about in my interpellation and which the Minister for Finance also mentions in his response.
What has happened is that the Tidö parties have chosen to use the main part of nearly 70 million kronor, which could have gone towards the work against tax evasion and tax errors, for the potential census that has previously been discussed here in this chamber.
We Social Democrats will always prioritize the work against tax errors and tax evasion. The reasons for this are several. It is partly a question of resources. There are different calculations, but one can imagine that up to 100 billion kronor every year disappears from the state treasury that could be used for welfare, the police, or the defense. But it is also a question of morality, of right being right and that everyone should pay tax on the same terms. Finally, it is actually a question of democracy, of all of us citizens following the decisions that are made - resources, morality, and democracy.
That is why I am pleased that the Minister for Finance expresses that it is a continued political priority to work against tax errors and tax evasion. I also appreciate that the Minister for Finance mentions the previous government's hard work against tax avoidance and tax evasion. At the same time, I see another pattern in practice. I have read my former comrades' submissions in the Committee on Taxation regarding the resources for the Swedish Tax Agency. They state that regarding the government's first mandate period, the government then reduced the resources to the Swedish Tax Agency until it eventually ended up in a financial crisis. Then one can allow oneself to wonder if the government intends to act in the same way: to speak here in the chamber of the Riksdag about the importance of the fight against tax evasion but in practice not prioritize the work.
If one wants to be even a little more conspiratorial, one can observe that the Moderates as a party have historically wavered on this issue. When the Panama Papers appeared and affected almost everywhere in the world - it was about people not having paid tax in the way that is expected - two then-current Moderate MPs also appeared in the documentation who had chosen not to pay tax. I also recall the public discussion surrounding Leif "What the hell are we getting for the money" Östling, who had a Maltese tax arrangement that was, in any case, questionable. At that time, 31 Moderate MPs chose to tweet that this was not a problem. I believe that MP Hanif Bali wrote on Twitter that he had heard that Leif Östling had driven at 70 on a 70-road.
My question to the Minister for Finance is therefore: Now that 70 million Swedish kronor are disappearing for Skatteverket, how is the work against tax evasion to be prioritized in practice?
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Member, for an important interpellation! I am glad that there are many in the chamber of the Riksdag who are engaging in issues of tax errors and tax evasion, because just as Mathias Tegnér says, it is a question of morality, of legitimacy, and of whether we in the long run will be able to have a strong welfare society. It is about the money being used in the best way and not ending up in the wrong places.
Mr. Speaker! I do not intend to comment on persons who are neither finance ministers nor sit in the government - now it is I who am the finance minister. We have a cooperation with Sverigedemokraterna, and I can say what I intend to do.
When it comes to resources for the Swedish Tax Agency, it is the government's assessment that the Swedish Tax Agency has the resources needed to do its job. An important part of this is the work against tax fraud and simply achieving better controls. That the resources are decreasing somewhat is, just as I said in the interpellation response, about the fact that today one works less with pandemic-related controls and follow-ups. That is why there is a slightly smaller appropriation. Mathias Tegnér and the Social Democrats do not have more resources, as I can see when I read about the Swedish Tax Agency in your budget motion, but you seem to think that this is a quite reasonable level. It is, after all, over 8 billion that the Swedish Tax Agency has at its disposal. Should more be needed in the future to deal with tax fraud and tax evasion, I will gladly have that discussion, first and foremost with the Swedish Tax Agency, of course, but also with other parties. Because this is a prioritized issue.
I believe, therefore, regardless of how it may sound in an interpellation debate, that we are fundamentally in agreement that more must be done. And this government is doing more. Part of this concerns the census, which we have had a previous debate about. It is important to know who is here, so that people do not have false identities and incorrect registered addresses – that also relates to this issue as a whole. But working against tax evasion and tax avoidance is an important priority.
As the member wrote in their interpellation, it is also important to do this work at an international level. When I have meetings with my counterparts in Brussels, I have told them that it is one of the government's priority issues during the presidency to work out these different acts that now exist so that we can move forward. Because if we are to tackle tax evasion and tax fraud, we must also work together. There, I share the interpellant's position.
Mathias Tegnér (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Finance, for the answer!
As an economist, I once noted to myself the English expression "put your money where your mouth is." I think that is important in this case, that is, to economically prioritize what one considers important.
We Social Democrats have chosen to use the 70 million that we are talking about in a different way than the Moderates. We have noted that the census that is being discussed does not need the type of resources that the government has proposed because the Swedish Tax Agency already previously worked hard to ensure that people were in the right place and were registered in the right place. That is, we mean that it is reasonable that a larger part of these 70 million should go towards work against tax errors and tax fraud. This is important precisely because of what the Finance Minister mentions.
The reason why the Swedish Tax Agency needs to increase the intensity of its work against tax errors and tax fraud is that, within the framework of the EU cooperation, the DAC cooperation, new data will arrive in large quantities that Sweden can access. For this to be possible in practice, new data systems are needed. Therefore, more resources are needed so that, in practice, the information that comes to us thanks to the cooperation in the EU can be utilized.
Is a part of 70 million a significant sum? Yes, my assessment is that it is. I note that the Moderaterna a couple of years ago beat the big drum and said that they are changing their policy and prioritizing the work against tax evasion. That was during Anna Kinberg Batra's time. Part of beating the big drum was to add an extra 50 million to Skatteverket for this work. I am a bit afraid that the Finance Minister has now joined the Pehrson doctrine: that one says one thing before the election and another thing after. I hope that Moderaterna stands up for what was expressed a couple of years ago – that Skatteverket should have more resources and not less.
The one who chooses not to contribute and evades taxes points a finger at the rest of the people and says: You shall bear a larger share. That is the reason why we Social Democrats prioritize the fight against tax errors and tax fraud. As I said earlier, it is a matter of resources, morality, and democracy.
Then I will return to the question I have asked the Minister for Finance: How is the Swedish Tax Agency to be able to develop its operations while the Minister for Finance adds new requirements without adding new money?
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you also for that question, Mathias Tegnér!
The simple answer is that Skatteverket's tasks are now changing: one leaves much of the pandemic-related, but one still has 8.2 billion. The Government assesses that these are resources that allow them to more than well manage their task. I can truly emphasize that if it were to be the case that more resources were needed over time – which I absolutely do not exclude, as Skatteverket will receive new tasks ahead – resources for this will also be added. The Government's assessment is that Skatteverket does not have too few resources. They are also not going to have that, because this is an important and prioritized issue for me and the entire Government.
We will continue the work. I hear that not only Mathias Tegnér but also other representatives in here are quite satisfied with the eight years. There were absolutely things that were good, but to be honest, there is much that is not working. A very large amount of the welfare fraud and tax fraud has not been sorted out during eight years.
I have a high level of ambition. I am convinced that the Swedish Tax Agency, with the resources it currently has, will manage its task, but it will certainly need more in the years ahead if new tasks are added that it cannot manage within the existing framework. This is nevertheless important to say.
It is also an important announcement that the Social Democrats do not think that the 70 million that we have spent on a census - I believe it is even 75 - should be spent on such a task but should be spent on something else.
There may not be any major differences between our budgets. We have the same level of appropriations, but I believe more resources were needed specifically for the census. One of the fundamental challenges and one of the fundamental problems right now is that we do not know which people are in the country or where they live. Sometimes very many people live at one and the same address, which we all understand is completely impossible – you cannot house 100 people in a two-room apartment.
We must gain even better control over all of this. Much has been done, but very much more needs to be done. The Swedish Tax Agency's resources is an important issue for me, as is the work against fraud and welfare crime. There we have many good proposals that we have pushed into the Tidö Agreement but also into the government's work itself.
I will continue to keep this issue high. I have done so for many years, and I will do so now that I have the responsibility for it.
Mathias Tegnér (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Finance, for the answer!
In a way, I am satisfied that the Minister for Finance is clear that the fight against tax evasion and tax errors is important. However, I do not share the Minister for Finance's view that the previous government and the Social Democrats do not prioritize a population census. We certainly do. On the other hand, we have distanced ourselves from the populist rhetoric that I also perceive the Minister for Finance backed away from earlier today. It is important to ensure that a population census is carried out in a way that works in practice and that it is not about slogans in the Swedish Riksdag.
It may be the demons in me that are flying, but I note that the Moderaterna in general, and even now when the Finance Minister speaks about the prioritization, are very good at talking about welfare fraud. More rarely does one talk about tax fraud. We Social Democrats naturally believe in principle that right should be right. This applies, of course, to welfare fraud and benefit fraud, but also to tax fraud. I note that Moderaterna in general prefer to talk about benefit fraud rather than tax fraud. I therefore conclude that Moderaterna have historically faltered in the issue of tax fraud.
I mentioned the Panama Papers, I mentioned "What the hell are we getting for the money?" and I mentioned the historical budget slaughter of the Swedish Tax Agency. As I see it, Mr. Speaker, it is up to the Finance Minister to prove. The Finance Minister says the right things here in the chamber, but I wonder if the Finance Minister can manage to make the Moderate parliamentary group truly counteract tax errors and tax evasion in reality. The future will be the judge of this.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! I can truly emphasize that the Moderate parliamentary group takes this issue and all issues concerning the fact that the money that the taxpayers have worked hard for – both the nursing assistant as well as the director general – is not used in the best or correct way, seriously. This money shall be used correctly and not end up in the wrong place.
I can also state that we seem to be in agreement that the work shall be intensified. Mathias Tegnér can rest assured that it will be. I also note that there is an undertone – that we should not prioritize it.
I have sat in the Riksdag for quite a few years, and I know that in the autumn of 2018, in December I believe, when the M-KD-reservation won here in the Riksdag, there was a permanent increase of the appropriation to Skatteverket by 10 million because it was needed then. It was, therefore, before the pandemic. The year after, the then government changed this and made it temporary, and as the interpellator mentioned in their interpellation, it expired in 2022. It was, therefore, the previous government that withdrew the permanent and made it temporary.
With this said, I am not the one who is. I do not go back 10 or 15 years, but I go back only a couple of years. We have presented a budget that I believe is good. Skatteverket will absolutely manage the task, and I will continue the work against tax evasion, tax avoidance, welfare fraud and other things and ensure that authorities such as the police, the judiciary, Skatteverket, Tullverket and others have the resources they need to fulfill their task.
We have prioritized before, and we will do it again. In the speech on it, I shall make a small insertion regarding the previous debate concerning elderly care. During the pandemic, Vänsterpartiet, Moderaterna, and Kristdemokraterna strengthened elderly care and allocated money there. These are important issues. Welfare and welfare fraud are important to us.
Now I would like to wish everyone a pleasant weekend.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.