Tl;dr-version: People used to look at and talk about "the Swedish model" with admiration and disbelief. Well, the below is what she looks like after three decades on the socio-political eq. to crystal meth and bath salts:
First, your employer pay 31.26% of your gross wage. This is called "arbetsgivaravgift"; lit. trans. "work-provider's fee", to mask that it is really you paying tax on you wage.
Second, you - if you earn more than eq. to $62 500/year (after the above tax) - must pay 20% of whatever above the $62 500 you make.
Third, you pay a county tax on what's left that's - on average - 32.41%.
And don't forget that most goods and services come with a 25% VAT too.
When my grandparents married, the total tax pressure was about 20%.
When mom was born, it was about 50%
Now, it's over 70%.
Is it any wonder we have (officially) over 10% unemployment* (25% youth unemployment**)?
For a family of a man, a woman and three kids that's all on welfare, to make it worth their while for one parent to take a full-time job, they'd have to earn - net per month - in excess of 24 000:- (ca $2 400) to break even compared to the total value of their welfare amount.
Most "simple jobs" pay much less than that; if you work full-time as a temp, say as county kindergarten staff, you earn - net- about 16 000:- a month.
I'm skipping 99% of the details and fine print here, but this is what the welfare-trap looks like when you reach the end of the path of good intentions: the jobs a typical welfare recipient could get, pay so little there's no point working, and lowering the welfare overall means making all those who can't work (cripples f.e.) destitute, homeless and soon-to-be-dead. Meanwhile, there are so many subsidies for employers hiring long-time unemployed for a limited time, there's no incentive to raise wages for simple jobs either.
30% - oh I wish I could complain about a lousy 30%!
*Only people registered with the office of unemployment are counted. If you are an unemployed migrant who attends one hour of Swedish class per week, you count as "employed". Our real unemployment is probably around 15%-17% or so: since all such data is public, they ceased collecting and collating it in any format accessible to the public decades ago. It was such a political embarassment and impossibility, ideology-wise, that they simply stopped looking.
** Youth unemployment means age 18-25 group, with the same caveat as above. A 23-year old with f.e. clinical depression who is not registered as unemployed but is in the health care system as a patient, is not counted, despite being unemployed.
Why this diatribe-essay? Because as Marlowe said:
"It is a comfort in wretchedness, to have companions in woe"
In other words, it you could have it a lot worse - so make damn sure you won't have it any worse than you already got, okay?
Is it a business property? Partially for business? What kind of business? What's the zoning? Forest or farmland or urban industrial lot or storefront? Residential? Are you a landlord or a rentier? Do you use part of your domicile for business? How much? How many hours? Is power, water, sewage, garbage handling included in the rent? How big is the parking lot? Do you own the land the building is on? Do you own the building but pay arrende for the land? What kind of servitut is there? Is the access road public or private?
It goes on like that, and certain changes to the house/building in question will also affect the property fee. That'd what they call the property tax for your house: a fee. It's based on the purchase value of your house and how many people per square kilometer there are in your area. And since your insurance is tied to the value reported to the insurer, you don't want to under-report the value to the tax-cartel, since doing so might lead to expensive problems down the road.
For someone with a cheap small old house, more like a cottage, like me, it's no big sum: $160/year. But it is annoying:
That sum is supposed to cover snow plowing and garbage collection, but they charge separately for that. The local county owns a company that has the county contract on those things, and in turn hire private contractors to the job - that way, they are allowed to charge fees to cover expenses incurred. That loophole was intended for temporary emergency stuff, like a road washing out and needing immediate repairs. It's like the ole' tee-shirt said:
The amounts vary by state and even counties within states, but in my state and county, it's simple for residences. Assessor comes by and decides your house and land are worth x. Then the tax is applied to x. Here they charge the tax on 1/3 of x. If you're lucky, you get lazy assessors who don't come around much and don't update the value of your property. So your house, as determined by them, is worth $180,000. They charge around .03% on $60,000 or $2000/yr. This is very low compared to places like CA or NY. It's your land, your property, you may even have paid it off. For the 2K/yr you're supposed to get good schools, roads, infrastructure. It doesn't happen in my state. Last in education, 6th in overdose deaths.
And earning over a certain amount doesn't work anymore. I think they got rid of the taxes on the overage. I don't earn over the certain amount, so I don't know. If you earn say $150,000/yr., you might be in the 22% tax bracket. You pay $33,000 unless you can dredge up a bunch of deductions. Even then you pay a lot.
30%?! I /wish/ the tax was as low as that!
Tl;dr-version: People used to look at and talk about "the Swedish model" with admiration and disbelief. Well, the below is what she looks like after three decades on the socio-political eq. to crystal meth and bath salts:
First, your employer pay 31.26% of your gross wage. This is called "arbetsgivaravgift"; lit. trans. "work-provider's fee", to mask that it is really you paying tax on you wage.
Second, you - if you earn more than eq. to $62 500/year (after the above tax) - must pay 20% of whatever above the $62 500 you make.
Third, you pay a county tax on what's left that's - on average - 32.41%.
And don't forget that most goods and services come with a 25% VAT too.
When my grandparents married, the total tax pressure was about 20%.
When mom was born, it was about 50%
Now, it's over 70%.
Is it any wonder we have (officially) over 10% unemployment* (25% youth unemployment**)?
For a family of a man, a woman and three kids that's all on welfare, to make it worth their while for one parent to take a full-time job, they'd have to earn - net per month - in excess of 24 000:- (ca $2 400) to break even compared to the total value of their welfare amount.
Most "simple jobs" pay much less than that; if you work full-time as a temp, say as county kindergarten staff, you earn - net- about 16 000:- a month.
I'm skipping 99% of the details and fine print here, but this is what the welfare-trap looks like when you reach the end of the path of good intentions: the jobs a typical welfare recipient could get, pay so little there's no point working, and lowering the welfare overall means making all those who can't work (cripples f.e.) destitute, homeless and soon-to-be-dead. Meanwhile, there are so many subsidies for employers hiring long-time unemployed for a limited time, there's no incentive to raise wages for simple jobs either.
30% - oh I wish I could complain about a lousy 30%!
*Only people registered with the office of unemployment are counted. If you are an unemployed migrant who attends one hour of Swedish class per week, you count as "employed". Our real unemployment is probably around 15%-17% or so: since all such data is public, they ceased collecting and collating it in any format accessible to the public decades ago. It was such a political embarassment and impossibility, ideology-wise, that they simply stopped looking.
** Youth unemployment means age 18-25 group, with the same caveat as above. A 23-year old with f.e. clinical depression who is not registered as unemployed but is in the health care system as a patient, is not counted, despite being unemployed.
Why this diatribe-essay? Because as Marlowe said:
"It is a comfort in wretchedness, to have companions in woe"
In other words, it you could have it a lot worse - so make damn sure you won't have it any worse than you already got, okay?
Was property tax in that litany of taxes? That's a fun one.
That's a ball of snakes in its own right.
Is it a business property? Partially for business? What kind of business? What's the zoning? Forest or farmland or urban industrial lot or storefront? Residential? Are you a landlord or a rentier? Do you use part of your domicile for business? How much? How many hours? Is power, water, sewage, garbage handling included in the rent? How big is the parking lot? Do you own the land the building is on? Do you own the building but pay arrende for the land? What kind of servitut is there? Is the access road public or private?
It goes on like that, and certain changes to the house/building in question will also affect the property fee. That'd what they call the property tax for your house: a fee. It's based on the purchase value of your house and how many people per square kilometer there are in your area. And since your insurance is tied to the value reported to the insurer, you don't want to under-report the value to the tax-cartel, since doing so might lead to expensive problems down the road.
For someone with a cheap small old house, more like a cottage, like me, it's no big sum: $160/year. But it is annoying:
That sum is supposed to cover snow plowing and garbage collection, but they charge separately for that. The local county owns a company that has the county contract on those things, and in turn hire private contractors to the job - that way, they are allowed to charge fees to cover expenses incurred. That loophole was intended for temporary emergency stuff, like a road washing out and needing immediate repairs. It's like the ole' tee-shirt said:
"Born free - taxed to death"
The amounts vary by state and even counties within states, but in my state and county, it's simple for residences. Assessor comes by and decides your house and land are worth x. Then the tax is applied to x. Here they charge the tax on 1/3 of x. If you're lucky, you get lazy assessors who don't come around much and don't update the value of your property. So your house, as determined by them, is worth $180,000. They charge around .03% on $60,000 or $2000/yr. This is very low compared to places like CA or NY. It's your land, your property, you may even have paid it off. For the 2K/yr you're supposed to get good schools, roads, infrastructure. It doesn't happen in my state. Last in education, 6th in overdose deaths.
And earning over a certain amount doesn't work anymore. I think they got rid of the taxes on the overage. I don't earn over the certain amount, so I don't know. If you earn say $150,000/yr., you might be in the 22% tax bracket. You pay $33,000 unless you can dredge up a bunch of deductions. Even then you pay a lot.
You make me want to convert to Islam, grab a few wives, and move to Sweden.