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Tax control has an effect on deduction errors

2019-11-26

The Swedish Tax Agency’s random checks on private individuals’ income tax returns have a lasting effect on how the deduction rules are followed. This is stated by the report “The effect of tax control on the compliance with private individuals”.

– We can see that the controls have a greater effect on middle and high income earners, on slightly older people and on those who live in metropolitan regions, says Yuwei De Gosson De Varennes, tax analyst and report writer.

Common causes of errors in the income tax return are that the time gain and distance for travel deductions are incorrectly calculated. For those groups where there is no effect of the control, for example, persons claiming deductions for the first time, low-income earners and younger persons, the errors are largely due to the fact that the deduction has not been substantiated. Follow-up checks show that these groups continue to make mistakes.

– This indicates that these are mostly intentional errors and that measures other than tax control are required to affect compliance with these persons. The Swedish Tax Agency needs to continue to improve e-services and at the same time work long-term for the rules to be simplified and made clearer. By extension, the intention is that the tax error should be reduced, says Karin Bolin, an analyst at the Swedish Tax Agency and report author.

The study also shows that the control does not have an effect on compliance with securities sales. The Swedish Tax Agency considers that a rule change in which cost amounts are provided via control data, so that profit or loss can be suppressed, would be an effective way to improve compliance.

– The regulations are perceived as difficult and many errors appear to be due to ignorance, says Yuwei De Gosson De Varennes.

Read the report here:

Skattekontrollens effekt på regelefterlevnaden hos privatpersoner