Foreign trade as fiscal policy : tariff setting and customs revenue in Sweden, 1830–1913

Two of the most defining trends of the nineteenth century were the growth of international trade and the increased role of government activities in the economy. In the conjuncture between these developments lie taxes on foreign trade. Sweden was one of the examples where customs revenue became the single most important source of revenue before WWI. This article sets out to test how this source of revenue could increase as much as it did. The analysis focuses mainly on trade policy and how tariffs were set and how that affected revenue. The results show that Swedish liberalisation of trade forced a switch in the fiscal structure of tariffs, moving revenue to fewer commodities. Increased importance was given to consumption goods with lower elasticity of demand. Trade continued to increase under fiscal taxation, which led to increases in revenue. During the early period increased revenue was achieved with higher tariffs on a few key commodities. Towards the end of the century tariffs on agricultural and capital goods became more fiscally relevant, which could have clashed with protectionist intentions. The article highlights that more work is needed on this fiscal component of trade policy.The Impact of Tariffs on the Swedish Economy: Fiscal Policy, Efficient Protection, and Trade Flows, 1783-191

Taxation of Real Estate in Sweden (1862–2013)

This paper examines the development and role of the real estate taxation in Sweden during the period between 1862 and 2010. Real estate has historically been taxed at both the local and state levels in Sweden. The importance of real estate taxation in Sweden is nevertheless difficult to assess directly because of the limited availability of data and the specific construction of the local tax system after 1920. The real estate tax initially aimed to provide municipalities with a stable tax base; however, its importance in this respect has diminished over time. After the tax reform of 1990-1991 in Sweden, real estate was taxed exclusively at the national level, generating tax revenue of approximately one percent of GDP. Further, in 2008, part of the tax was transformed to a local fee

Swedish Capital Income Taxation (1862–2013)

This paper describes the evolution of capital income taxation in Sweden between1862 and 2013, including the taxation of corporate profits, dividends, capital gains, interestincome, and wealth taxation. To illustrate this evolution, we present annual time-series dataregarding the marginal effective tax rates on capital income (METR) for a marginalinvestment financed with new share issues, retained earnings or debt. The METR is low andstable and does not exceed five percent until World War I, when it begins to drift somewhatupward and vary depending on the source of finance. The outbreak of World War II begins aperiod during which the magnitude and variation of the METR sharply increase. The METRpeaks during the 1970s and 1980s and often exceeds 100 percent. The 1990–1991 tax reformand lower rates of inflation reduce the magnitude and variation of the METR, which variesbetween 15 and 35 percent at the end of the period examined