Sweden has some of the world's highest taxes, so why is the taxman so popular with the Swedes?

Sweden is infamous for having some of the highest taxes in the world, and yet the country’s tax agency is still one of Sweden’s most trusted institutions.

The Swedish attitude towards tax contrasts sharply with many countries where taxes can be a deeply divisive issue. We investigate what this says about Swedish society and how the popularity of the welfare state might survive growing challenges in the future.

  • HubertManne
    60•8 months ago

    well swedes also get value for their taxes. I remember one who would talk about how it drove him nuts coming across pot holes and various broken infrastructure as it would be unacceptable for it to be like that for weeks were he was from.

    • Flying SquidMEnglish
      78•8 months ago

      Right, but there’s a reason we don’t get value for our taxes and that reason is also Republicans. Especially Reagan.

      • HubertManne
        15•8 months ago

        oh yeah and we end up paying more in local taxes than any reduction we ever got on federal ones.

    • DojanEnglish
      9•8 months ago

      Yeah, re-paving happens all the time here. I visited Massachusetts back in 2019 and was shocked at the abysmal state of the roads.

      • @wolfpack86@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7•8 months ago

        But Massachusetts has snowy winters and icy conditions which means they need to salt the roads. This is not something that they have to contend with in check notes Sweden?

        /S

        • DojanEnglish
          2•8 months ago

          This year in particular has been frustrating when it comes to snow. I live pretty far south, about two hours south of Stockholm, and we’ve had snow for like half of April. It all melted at the end of March, there were spring flowers, and then we had a shit tonne of snow again, which melted, followed by more snow. So many false starts. 😩

          It’s been snow free for a week now, I hope it holds.

      • HubertManne
        7•8 months ago

        yeah and that was a place with pretty good infrastructure and upkeep for the us.

        • DojanEnglish
          3•8 months ago

          I’ve heard that MA is a pretty solid place overall. To be fair I loved my stay, but I think the main reason for that was meeting up with a very close friend of mine. I recall this crossing in particular leaving me rather exasperated.

          It seems like they’ve since paved over it, however. It is a bit baffling to me that it looks the same in 2012 as it did to me in 2019.