Wealth tax enforcement in Sweden: Filing requirements and pre-populated returns

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Saez, Emmanuel; Seim, David
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105440
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: wealth taxation; tax compliance; Tax filing requirements; Pre-populated tax returns

摘要

This paper shows that two features of wealth tax administration in Sweden-(1) filing requirements and (2) pre-populated returns-have a large impact on compliance even in an environment with highly-developed third-party reporting through information returns. Up to 1993, all taxpayers had to fill in wealth information when filing the (joint) income and wealth tax return. In 1994-1996, only those with net wealth above the exemption threshold (approximately the top 10 %) needed to fill in wealth information. This leads to a very large reduction of about half of the number of taxpayers slightly above the wealth tax exemption threshold, and a reduction of about 20 % in the total number of wealth taxpayers above the threshold. Starting in 1997, Sweden began pre-populating wealth information on tax returns for taxpayers with third-party-reported net wealth above the exemption threshold. Symmetrically, this immediately doubles the number of taxpayers slightly above the threshold and increases the number of all wealth taxpayers by almost 20 %. The introduction of information returns for financial wealth in 1986 had a comparatively small impact on wealth reporting.