Skatteverket - dåliga förlorare eller rättsutvecklare? En studie rörande beskattning av carried interest i Sverige.

Sammanfattning: The present thesis deals with the compensation form in the private equity industry called carried interest, and its taxation in Sweden. The purpose of this thesis is twofold, in which the author both states as well as examines the current legal position regarding taxation of carried interest, and also allows a glance into the future and examines current litigation between private equity firms and the Swedish tax agency. The two issues addressed and answered in this thesis are: "which is today's legal position regarding the taxation of carried interest, and which criticism can be raised against this position?” and "how will the taxation of carried interest be ruled according to the legislation regarding close companies? ". In 2010, several of the largest private equity firms’ advisory companies in Sweden were taxed for their alleged income of carried interest. The litigation process between the tax agency and Nordic Capital became the leading trial regarding carried interest. In this process, the tax agency argued that the private equity funds advisory firm would be considered to be the recipient of carried interest, even though that this corporation did not receive any carried interest under the investment agreement. The argument from the tax agency proceeded on the basis of the true meaning of a legal transaction. The tax agency reached success with its line of argument in the administrative court, but lost the case in the appeal. In 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court announced that it would not grant appeal in the Nordic Capital trial, the appeal verdict is thus currently the legal position in the area of taxation of carried interest. In connection to the announcement, the tax agency stated that it intends to pursue trial against private equity firms via the framework of the rules governing close companies. The work that the key executives perform in the advisory company is said to qualify the shares in the company that formally receives the carried interest, namely the general partner. The key behind this argument is that the key executives also control the general partner through their holding companies. The thesis sorts out the abovementioned trials regarding carried interest and investigates them in the light of the current legal position, the role of Swedish tax agency, legality and legal security for the private equity firms and the market as a whole.