Gränsdragningen mellan hobby- och näringsverksamhet -förutsägbart för alla parter?

Sammanfattning: The distinction between business activity and hobby according to the income tax legislation is often difficult to determine. There is also the distinction between economic activity and a non-economic activity according to the valued added tax (VAT) legislation. The difficulties especially apply to activities in certain fields that are cost-intensive, when the activities are no longer in a start-up phase, the person behind the activity has a large private interest at heart and the work is done during the leisure time. For an activity to be classified as a business activity, it shall fulfill the business criteria, which means that it should be conducted professionally, independently and with profit. The difference between a business and a hobby is that activities classified as hobby are considered to be non-profit in the person's leisure time. For an activity, no matter if it is classified as a hobby or not, and be classified as an economic activity it has to have the purpose to obtain income. Even if the business should be classified as a hobby or a business and an economic activity an overall assessment shall be done of all the objective circumstances in each individual case. Consideration should also be given to the periods before and after the current year which is up for review to see how the business has developed over time. In this legal case study I have chosen to highlight the issue of the difficulties according to the subject, I have analyzed 28 cases. 20 out of 28 cases are related to the horse industry and the other cases are related to other activities such as motor sports and invention. The legal case study shows the conditions that are often factored into the overall assessment, but also the difficulties of predicting how the various authorities will assess the activity. The overall assessment of the objective circumstances can in different instances lead to completely different conclusions, even though the circumstances are apparently the same. This leads to the problem of evidence and how individuals can assess the same facts differently. It is also often difficult to see if certain conditions have been more important than others in the overall assessment. Sometimes it is even difficult to see what is included in the overall assessment. All this affects the legitimacy and credibility of the judicial procedure.