Rättsosäkerhet kring bostadsförmåner

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to investigate the valuation of taxable accommodation benefits in Swedish law from a perspective of legal certainty. The theoretical discussion is based on an inconsistent case law in the administrative court of appeal that has appeared in the last years. Pursuant to established law the valuation is to be done in accordance with the general rule for taxable benefits. This general rule can be found in 61 section 2 § of the Income Tax Act and states that the benefit should be valued to its market value. The market value of accommodation benefits, however, has proven to be difficult to assess in court practice. Certain support is offered through the guiding material published by the Swedish Tax Agency. This material, however, does not have status as source of law, and as such is not legally binding for a court in its application of law. Several different methods of calculation to determine the benefit value has been accepted by the court of appeal and it is based on this that the essay claims to find a lack of legal certainty. The claimed lack of legal certainty is mainly reflected in the absence of predictability when it comes to taxational consequences. The absence of predictability risks affecting the taxpayer and his or her ability to make a well-founded decision in terms of whether to receive the benefit in a negative way. The essay reaches the conclusion that the current legal position must be deemed lacking in regard to legal certainty, but questions whether or not any legal development in the field of accommodation benefits will take place. This stance is held due to the fact that there are no current indications of any change. Furthermore, it is questionable whether there is an existing political will to amend the law. When assessing the legal certainty with elements of ethical values, one can adduce that the accommodation benefit poses a burdening of the company with an asset of private character, which in itself may be undesirable. With such a perspective, the case can be made that the lack of legal certainty is somewhat legitimate.