The Swedish government has presented a plan to modify the country's controversial real estate tax, an issue that analysts said helped the current centre-right coalition win last year's national elections. The 'Alliance for Sweden' coalition made it one of its central election promises to reform the real estate tax last September, but had bickered internally until now about how to pay for the reform.
The Swedish government has presented a plan to modify the country's controversial real estate tax, an issue that analysts said helped the current centre-right coalition win last year's national elections. The 'Alliance for Sweden' coalition made it one of its central election promises to reform the real estate tax last September, but had bickered internally until now about how to pay for the reform.
The four centre-right parties -The Moderate Party (M), The Liberal People's Party (FP), The Christian Democrats (KD), and The Centre Party (C) - said Tuesday that the tax on all houses and apartments will be replaced with a lower, flat fee for home owners starting next year. The state will compensate the lower revenues with a higher tax on capital gains for home sellers.
House owners currently pay a 1% tax of their property's value. For apartments, the rate is 0.5%. 'This is a tax that makes it very hard for people to plan their lives,' said Christian Democrats' leader Goran Hagglund. 'And it makes it especially difficult for people with small margins, who live in areas that are considered attractive.'
