Sweden as a tax haven - A research regarding if a tax haven can conduct high taxes and what other characteristics may be

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a research regarding if Sweden should be classified as a tax haven. To be able to classfie Sweden, four organisations have been researched, this is because there is no clear definition of the term tax haven. This research has gone through four organisations' views on tax havens and what they see as indicators in a country that could be classified as a tax haven. Have the four organisations researched in this paper the same point of view or have they different views from each other regarding the indicators of a tax haven? A test has been done with the indicators of the four organisations. This test has gone through how Sweden and its taxes stand towards the indicators of a tax haven. Sweden has usually been seen as a country with high taxes on labour, hence there is no inheritance tax, wealth tax and property tax. The corporate tax rate is currently 20.6 percent, which may be seen as a favourable tax rate compared to the corporate tax rate in the 1980’s at 52 percent. There is also tax exemption on certain capital assets for corporations. Some people say that Sweden should be deemed a tax haven. The reasons that has been given for this is that there is neither an inheritance tax, a wealth tax nor a property tax. With the right tax plan income for labour can be changed to capital income that is taxed with a lower tax rate. Corporations can gain assets without taxes and then pass them to their owners for a lower taxation. With this research and with the defined indicators of a tax haven, one should be able to conclude whether the above statements are enough to determine Sweden to be a tax haven.