Press releases | 11/11/2019

Lessons from the Swedish Inheritance Tax

In 2004, Sweden repealed its inheritance tax. There were several problems associated with the tax, and the revenues it raised to the government were rather small. This is noted by the researcher Sebastian Escobar-Jansson, who has done a study for SNS on the lessons that can be drawn from the Swedish inheritance tax, as it was constructed before the repeal.

The Swedish inheritance tax had a progressive form and small exemptions. As in other countries, the yearly revenue raised by the Swedish tax was rather small: at most 3 billion kronor, about 0.1 percent of GDP.

The results of the study suggest that inheritances of all sizes were under-reported, but that the larger inheritances were under-reported to a greater extent.

– My calculations suggest that the average tax payment would have been 30‒70 per cent larger, if no under-reporting had taken place, says Sebastian Escobar-Jansson, researcher in economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Today, Sweden is one of the few countries within the EU-15 that doesn’t have an inheritance tax. In the study, the author surveys the arguments for and against reintroducing an inheritance tax.

According to the author, it is not possible to empirically estimate the effects of an inheritance tax on a country’s consolidated public finances in longer terms. One of the reasons is that empirical research on the size of the effects of an inheritance tax on employment and savings is lacking.

The report is a publication within the SNS research project “Taxes in a Globalised World”.

Researchers: Possible to improve public procurement by means of a supplier rating system
The legal framework of public procurement contributes to uncertainty regarding the quality of future deliveries. One way of addressing this problem is to introduce an open system for rating suppliers, according to four researchers in a new SNS report.
Tax scholar: A new major tax reform would result in higher growth and employment in Sweden
Reduce the tax on labor, introduce a uniform VAT and a uniform taxation of capital income. This is proposed by economist Åsa Hansson in a new SNS report. Much has changed since the major tax reform of 1990–91. If the tax system is reformed on the basis of current conditions, she argues, Sweden can achieve higher growth and employment.
The SNS Economic Policy Council 2022: Introduce a rating system in public procurement similar to systems used for taxi and hotel services
A major problem with regard to public procurement is that buyers are not allowed to take previous experiences with suppliers into account...
Economists: the incentives given to municipalities by the national government should be reexamined
Swedish municipalities and regions have incentives to raise taxes more than what is optimal from society’s point of view, according to economists...

Lessons from the Swedish Inheritance Tax

Categories

Subscribe to our Newsletter