Swedish taxpayers are the most likely to be dishonest in regards to income tax reporting, according to a new study. The news comes via a report published by German economic research group IAW, which said that 13.9 percent of Swede’s income goes undeclared each year, the highest level seen among Nordic nations.
However, the survey revealed that the black market among taxpayers in Norway and was not far behind, with 13.6 percent of earnings going unreported, whilst the figure in both Denmark and Finland stood at 13 percent.
The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise spokesman While Peter Isling told the media that he was somewhat surprised to see Sweden topping the list, although he noted that Stockholm’s higher taxes on the service industry might be a major contributing factor.
“Sweden has relatively high taxes on services. And if it costs a lot to purchase certain services, consumers are often open to getting things done in an alternative way. What we’ve seen, however, is that the reforms allowing tax breaks on household services and home improvement work have had an effect. The black market in these sectors has decreased,” The Local reports.
Meanwhile, Greece was rated as the most dishonest among OECD nations, with the black market representing 24.6 percent of the country’s GDP, whist for Italy the figure was 21.1 percent.