OECD Says Sweden Should Consider Abolishing the State Income Tax

In a report on the Swedish economy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed more of its schizophrenic nature (see this article for more information on the OECD's Jekyll and Hyde personality). While the Paris-based bureaucracy has become infamous for its so-called harmful tax competition project that seeks to penalize jurisdictions with pro-growth tax law, the economists at the OECD often write studies and reports that reflect a solid understanding of the negative impact of government intervention. The Policy Brief on the Swedish economy is a good example. As excerpted below, it notes the problems of high tax rates and excessively generous welfare benefits. It calls for the elimination of the wealth tax and reductions in punitive marginal tax rates. It even suggests that Sweden abolish the state income tax:

...the new government has renewed the commitment for sound macroeconomic framework conditions and will stick to the target for general government net lending of 2% of GDP over the cycle which is necessary to keep public finances on a sustainable path. Underlying this target is the assumption that taxes can be sustained at current levels which could be difficult in the future, not least due to mobile tax bases and international tax competition. ...the share of 20 64 year olds who depend on public income transfers has declined to 20% in 2006, but it remains well above the 15-16% of 1990-91. ...Sickness absence among those employed and the number entering disability pension increased rapidly from the late 1990s. The numbers are now falling, although the stock of disability pensioners remains among the highest in the OECD. ...Letting people keep a bit more of the value they create is vital to encourage both labour supply and entrepreneurship. The plans to abolish the wealth tax should therefore be endorsed, as it sets in at a rate of 1½ per cent already from wealth slightly above the average price of a metropolitan-area one-family house. Abolition of the wealth tax might lead to repatriation of capital, possibly making more investment capital available for new small firms. Marginal income taxes are also important, though, because high rates kick in already from slightly above average full-time earnings. The combination of social contributions, income and consumption taxes drives the effective marginal tax rate above 70% for over a third of the full-time employed, helping to explain why working hours for those employed are below the OECD average. ...Moving up the threshold by SEK 100 000 from 105% to 135% of average full-time earnings, for example, would halve the number of persons exposed to the above-70% combined marginal tax rate, which results when the state income tax sets in on top of social contributions, municipal income tax and consumption taxes. ...In fact, completely abolishing the state income tax would cost just 1½ per cent of GDP.