I just finished my Swedish taxes—by a phone app! It took about 15 minutes, but part of the delay was that I loaded the tax app onto my work phone and my bank ID authorization app is on my personal phone. So, I had to load the app onto my other phone. I may have the equivalent of the 10-40 EZ form without complicating factors, but the entire form seems to be 8 pages for the full version.
Taxes are easier, but higher. There are no exemptions to claim and other ways to reduce one’s taxes. Here’s the 2014 tax rate as posted on Wikipedia:
- 0% from 0 kr to 18,800 kr (~0 – 2,690 USD)
- Circa 31% (ca. 7% county and 24% municipality tax): from 18,800 kr to 433,900 kr (~2,690 – 62,140 USD)
- 31% + 20%: from 433,900 kr to 615,700 kr (~62,140 – 88,180 USD)
- 31% + 25%: above 615,700 kr (88,180 USD and up)[4]
Yes, if you make only $3,000, you still pay 31% income tax, in addition to 25% sales tax (even on utilities), except for only 12% on food.
Generally, Swedes are fine with paying high tax, because they see the benefits in a civil society, free education through first university degree (Anya even gets free lunch), and healthcare for all. To illustrate this last point…
I have not registered us with any health care system, but I’ve already had a mammogram and Anya has a dentist appointment. Dental work is covered under socialized medicine until 18.
On Tuesday, I rearranged my work schedule to take part of the day and go to Stockholm with Donna, an American who married a Swede, and has lived here about 30 years. She has been saying that she would take me around and show me some of her favorite places for a while, and with Holy Week, she was on vacation and could set time aside. Here are highlights.
A little bit of looking around and shopping (I finally found barley kernels and tapioca), brought us eventually to the place of last week’s terror attack and the public expressions of grief.
The rest of the day included lunch, a short visit to the Nordiska Museum (in a building that doesn’t look like a museum), and a ferry ride across to old town for a nice fika before heading home on the train. (Train tickets are purchased with an app too.)
Wednesday was full of meetings from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm with a quick lunch. Unfortunately, the whole afternoon was in Swedish. The faculty meetings are so frustrating to not be able to engage in important conversations. I find myself at times moving beyond frustration and into anger, so I want to figure out a way to mange the issues that underneath all of this better. In addition, I caught the cold that was going around, so it was not overall a good day.
With blessings,
Beth
Someone must have figured out what the US tax scale percentage would be if we had the courage to simplify our taxes. Have you heard any reference to that figure? (figure as verb, figure as noun!)