GUWonder

The taxation of hobby income was meant to tax income that is generated from business-like activity that the government doesn't want to end up being a backdoor for hobby expenses in general to be deducted for tax liability management purposes. Begging giving rise to Swedish tax liability indeed bit the dust as gifts became non-taxable in Sweden.

Andorra is way cheaper -- for living than Monaco -- has good value skiing, and it doesn't involve dealing with so many high-strung, ultra-arrogant drivers in or around parking garages even as it has a very generous tax regime for residents and businesses operating from there. Also, Andorra doesn't seem to attract the kind of imagination that Monaco does. Maybe Skatterverket should hunt down SAS Eurobonus Accounts with addresses listed in Monaco?

Speaking of Skatteverket being on the hunt for EBD members, it seems like the hunt was aimed at EBDs who had either one or both of the following: an account address listed in Sweden; and/or a +46 phone number on file in the account. Is that a trigger for EBGs and other EB members to shift their address and phone numbers on file with SAS to contacts in Mauritius or elsewhere?

nacho

What about those people who drive the beggars to their "workplace" and bring them back? I'm sure the service is not free.

I thought about Monaco because one of the families from my kids' previous school were Swedes used to live there - they still have a Maserati in Sweden and the dad was a pro golfer (not that I ever have that kind of money to think about where to hide them).

GUWonder

Maserati doesn't really grab my imagination, maybe because I associate it with an uncle living on an ordinary doctor's salary (in the US) and whose only *G status was A3*G acquired from one personal trip for safaris and the like. But I do hear you on Swedes who become resident in Monaco or elsewhere "down south" to avoid Swedish taxes and then come back to Sweden loaded enough to have more blingy toys and places than would otherwise be the case for them in Sweden. [Well-paid sports players moving for tax reasons is very much a phenomenon across the globe, as with say US professional sports players shifting residence (and training) to say Florida or some other US state with no state/local income tax if they can help it.]

The organized begging operations and their de facto employees begging for a living could probably be targeted by Skatteverket, but there's probably not as much money there as grabs the imagination by going after the more jet-set crowd for being tax cheats. Going after EBDs probably has more widespread support than trying to go after beggars for unpaid taxes due, but Skatteverket should have made it EBGs too as "Gold card holders" may grab more of the popular Swedish imagination than the relatively unknown "Diamond card holders".

JR67

But it is racist to target them. I just don't get how they are going to identify "criminals" - most of my EBD points were gained through private travels, and all the work-related points went to upgrades on work trips, as did a number of private points. In a perfect world they will have to give me tax credits for subsidizing work trips.

fassy

Well, then nothing to worry for you.

GUWonder

Sounds like you'll be fine, except for perhaps having your name get a bit more attention than personally wanted. Isn't the statute of limitations for this kind of thing something like 6 or 7 years in Sweden?

Sweden has already had the police targeting the organized begging operations in Sweden, but I don't know about Skatteverket's involvement in that except that Skatteverekt's economic crime fighting and tax crime units would be the natural touch points for the police investigating organized rackets of that sort too. But nowadays even in Stockholm there just doesn't seem to be as much money in begging as there used to be. The trend toward going ever more cashless in Sweden means that there is less cash available in the hands of people on the streets/sidewalks/squares to give to beggars on the streets/sidewalks/squares. Speaking of less being around: since SAS slashed the earnings of Eurobonus points earned from flights and since business travel demand is way down and may not recover from the current point as strongly and quickly as leisure travel, Skatteverket seems to be on a hunt for diminishing returns for already diminished returns when it comes to frequent flyer programs.

Maybe the point of Skatteverket getting the Swedish EBD list isn't yet about identifying criminals -- probably more about identifying civil violations -- but to first try to figure out the scale of how much money the government is potentially leaving on the table by not getting money from frequent flyers who have a lot of their points coming from employer/client-paid flight activity but may be using them for personal travel.

Has anyone on businessclass.se (or even here) or elsewhere made an effort to get at Skatteverket's internal communications about Skatteverket going after SAS frequent flyer account information? It may be a goldmine of information about what kind of things may come ahead from this effort.

It would be fascinating to know what Skatteverket's own employees who attended OECD and FATF meetings have been doing with the points from work-paid trips.

Im a new user

That sounds like näringsverksamhet. It's subject to tax. The VAT rate is probably 6% (public transport). Don't forget the fine for not having the right kind of cash registers.

The tax man will inform you that you have to pay 20,000 extra in tax, but when he sees how you earned and used the points, you will get 10,000 back.

vanillabean

If only lawn tractors had wings!

It would be simpler of course keeping work and personal apart to begin with.

Fredrik74

Not that I've seen unfortunately.

It would be hilarious if they're EBG and that's why...

fassy

Well, I might be brave and will ask my tax consultant about this. They are one of the biggest here in Sweden and since they never made a stink...

Government officials of course do not want or earn any miles! *wink* *wink*

There have been so many scandals about this over the last years in almost all countries here in Europe. Probably nowadays they just credit to Thai or ANAs program

CPH-Flyer

Are government employees in Sweden allowed to accrue points on their work paid trips? They are not allowed to accrue in Denmark, though I think a lot do anyway.

fassy

Probably not. But as you as you said, they do it anyway. Lots of scandals to prove this assumptions

CPH-Flyer

The process will be quietly stopped when they find a couple of government ministers on the list of people using work earned points to fly their lovers/mistresses away for the weekend....

Fredrik74

I think the opposite is true. Those people or celebrities will be the big catch.

GUWonder

Salacious gossip and other salacious stories is what the Swedish bureaucrats love at fika time and what the tabloid media loves all the time. A Swedish version of "catch & kill" to bury a story almost certainly wouldn't work with this kind of thing in Sweden.

By the way, you left out mister/male paramour. Also, there is some of that stuff going on during the work week too. [Look at what either Scandic or Nordic Choice hotels added as an occupancy restriction for day-room use of the hotel rooms as substitute offices during this period when they are trying to make up for the loss of overnight guest traffic revenue.]

Regardless of being XY or XX, there are definitely some Swedish celebrities of sort who mix business with pleasure and are almost certainly running up and down the frequent flyer program balances in doing so at times.

Whether accrual is banned or not, I know some Swedish government employees who say they don't credit their work trips to any loyalty programs because it could be problematic. I had asked about this back when I was still learning about SJ's program and wondering if the people going to the judge meetings and other government work conferences/meetings/investigations were collecting points for their domestic train trips.

Maybe they are more US-oriented: the US has not only the biggest frequent flyer programs, the US is also the biggest money laundering and "asset security" center of the world for "exposed persons" as relevantly defined under Commission Directive 2006/70/EC.