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

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

Open Access
|Jun 2017

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Effective marginal tax rates for different combinations of owners and sources of finance in 1970 and 1980 (10 percent real pre-tax rate of return at actual inflation rates).

DebtNew share issuesRetained earnings
1970
Households51.3122.157.1
Tax-exempt institutions-64.815.932.7
Insurance companies-45.142.441.2
1980
Households58.2136.651.9
Tax-exempt institutions-83.4-11.611.2
Insurance companies-54.938.428.7

Notes: All calculations are based on the actual asset composition in manufacturing. The following inflation rates were used: 7 percent for 1970 and 9.4 percent for 1980. The calculations conform to the general framework developed by King and Fullerton (1984). The average holding period is assumed to be 10 years. A negative tax rate implies that the rate of return after tax is greater than before tax. For instance, a tax rate of -83 percent for a debt-financed investment owned by a tax-exempt institution in 1980 implies that a real rate of return of 10 percent before tax becomes 18.3 percent after tax.

Source: Södersten (1984).

Table 2

Effective marginal tax rates for different combinations of owners and sources of finance, 1991,1994, and 2005 (10 percent real pre-tax rate of return at actual inflation rates).

DebtNew share issuesRetained earnings
1991
Households31.761.854.2
Tax-exempt institutions-9.44.018.7
Insurance companies14.433.331.6
1994
Households*32.028.336.5
Tax-exempt institutions-14.921.821.8
Insurance companies0.732.333.8
2005
Households*27.958.142.7
Tax-exempt institutions-1.223.223.1
Insurance companies18.244.642.6

Notes: The calculations conform to the general framework developed in King and Fullerton (1984). The following inflation rates were used: 5 percent for 1991, 2 percent for 1994, and 2 percent for 2005. The average holding period is assumed to be 10 years.

Source: Calculations were provided by Jan Södersten; see Södersten (1993) for assumptions and methods.

* From 1991 onwards, unlisted corporate shares were exempt from wealth taxation, which reduces effective marginal tax rates on debt, new share issues, and retained earnings to 27, 18, and 27 percent, respectively, in 1994 and to 23, 48, and 33 percent, respectively, in 2005.

* From 1991 onwards, unlisted corporate shares were exempt from wealth taxation, which reduces effective marginal tax rates on debt, new share issues, and retained earnings to 27, 18, and 27 percent, respectively, in 1994 and to 23, 48, and 33 percent, respectively, in 2005.

Table 3

Effective owner-level taxation in 1973 for a firm having equity of SEK 10 million and a 10 percent real rate of return before tax when all profit accrues to the owner in the form of dividends.

SEK
Net worth/equity of firm10,000,000
Nominal return on equity1,700,000
Real return on equity before tax1,000,000
Corporate tax (52 percent)884,000
Dividend to owner816,000
Dividend tax (75 percent)612,000
Dividend after tax204,000
(Wealth tax on the net worth of the firm)240,000
Wealth tax when reduction rule applicable120,000
(Total tax payments, full wealth tax1,736,000)
Total tax payments, reduced wealth tax1,616,000
Total tax payments as a share of nominal return95.1 percent
Total tax payments as a share of real return161.6 percent

Note: Inflation rate is 7 percent; wealth tax = 2.5 percent on wealth exceeding SEK 1 million and SEK 15,000 on the first million. There was also a rule that total tax payments should not exceed 85 percent of taxable income, although the wealth tax could never be reduced by more than 50 percent.

Source: The relevant tax rates are taken from Henrekson and Stenkula (2015).

Table 4

Effective owner-level taxation in 2015 for a firm having equity of SEK 60 million and a 10 percent real rate of return before tax when all profit accrues to the owner in the form of dividends.

SEK
Net worth/equity of firm60,000,000
Nominal return on equity6,000,000
Real return on equity before tax6,000,000
Corporate tax (22 percent)1,320,000
Dividend to owner4,680,000
Dividend tax (20 percent)936,000
Dividend after tax3,720,000
Wealth tax on the net worth of the firm0
Total tax payments2,256,000
Total tax payments as a share of real return37.6 percent

Note: Inflation rate is 0 percent.

Source: The relevant tax rates are taken from Henrekson and Stenkula (2015).

Table 5

Effective owner-level taxation of individually owned listed stock with a market value of SEK 200 billion and a dividend ratio of 3 percent according to the 1973 and 2015 tax code.

19732015
Market value of stock200200
Dividend66
Dividend tax (78 percent in 1973; maximum 30 percent in 2015)4.70-1.8
Wealth tax (halved because of reduction rule)2.50
Net-1.24.2-6
Tax payments as a share of dividend payout (percent)1200-30

Note: If the shares were owned by a wholly owned holding company in 2015, no tax was levied on the dividends from the listed stock. For the part of dividends paid out to the owner, the tax rate is 30 percent if the portfolio company is listed; otherwise it is normally 20 or 25 percent.

Source: The relevant tax rates are taken from Henrekson and Stenkula (2015).

Table 6

Inheritance taxation when deceased's own child inherits individually owned listed stock having a market value of SEK 200 billion according to the 1973, 1979, and 2015 tax code.

197319792015
Inheritance tax (65 percent of market value on death date)1301300
Capital gains tax (10 percent of sales if sold at market value on death date)7.827.840
Capital gains tax on sales to pay inheritance plus capital gains tax11.050.20
Total141.0180.20

Note: The capital gains tax in 1973 was 7.8 percent (10 percent of the sales value was taxed as labor income). The capital gains tax in 1979 was 27.84 percent (40 percent of the nominal gain was taxed as labor income at a rate of 87 percent; heirs were allowed to deduct 20 percent as a standard acquisition cost).

Source: The relevant tax rates are taken from Henrekson and Stenkula (2015).

Table 7

Sweden’s wealthiest families in 1963/64 and Sweden’s wealthiest persons and families in 2016, in billion SEK and as a share of GDP.

1963/1964Billion SEKPercentage of 2016Billion SEKPercentage of
GDPGDP
Fam. Broström0.1650.180Ingvar Kamprad65515.0
Fam. Bonnier0.1300.141Stefan Persson2084.8
Fam. Wallenberg0.1250.136Hans Rausing1022.3
Incl. foundations0.5000.545Jörn Rausing571.3
Fam. Wehtje0.1000.109Antonia Ax:son Johnson551.3
Fam. Söderberg0.0950.104Melker Schörling551.3
Incl. foundations0.1100.200Finn Rausing541.2
Fam. Ählén0.0800.087Kirsten Rausing541.2
Fam. Ax:son Johnson0.0800.087Fredrik Paulsen531.2
Incl. foundations0.1050.114Ane Uggla471.1
Fam. Kempe0.0650.071Dan Sten Olsson451.0
Incl. foundations0.1350.147Bertil Hult400.91
Fam. Edstrand0.0650.071Fredrik Lundberg340.78
Fam. Bergengren0.0500.054Carl Bennet240.55
Fam. Kockum0.0400.044Liselott Tham220.50
Fam. Klingspor0.0350.038Fam. Kamprad68215.6
Fam. Mark/Carlander0.0250.027Ruben Rausing’s heirs2746.3
Fam. Stenbeck0.0100.011Erling Persson’s heirs2686.1
Fam. Ericsson0.0100.011Fam. Olsson (Stena)821.9
Fam. Lundberg561.3
Fam. Douglas400.91

Note: GDP 1963: SEK 91.77 billion; GDP 2016: SEK 4,379 billion.

Source: SOU 1968:7 and Veckans Affärer (2016).

Language: English
Page range: 26 - 46
Submitted on: Feb 3, 2017
Accepted on: Mar 31, 2017
Published on: Jun 12, 2017
Published by: DJØF Publishing, Nordic Tax Research Council
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
JEL:

© 2017 Magnus Henrekson, published by DJØF Publishing, Nordic Tax Research Council
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.