Update: After this review, Håkan Nesser paid SEK 4 million in residual tax in December 2019. In June 2022, he was charged with a serious tax offense, for not declaring million income from the company in the review below.
In the autumn of 2017, one of the biggest leaks of confidential economic information in recent years will take place: the Paradise leak.
The information in the leak, which was first revealed by ICIJ and Suddeutsche Zeitung, showed extensive international tax planning in the low-tax country of Malta.
More than 2,000 Swedish names were included among the documents: Property owners, business leaders, politicians and athletes.
Now Kulturnyheterna can also add famous cultural personalities to that list.
The case we have looked at more closely concerns one of Sweden's most successful authors, who has had companies in Malta in recent years.
There he has invested a large part of his income during the 2010s.
The star author has since made dividends totaling SEK 15 million - but without declaring the income and tax for them.
Something that according to the Swedish Tax Agency can be a crime.
Low-tax countries are causing debate
In the early 2010s, the author of Paradise is at the peak of his career, after a long series of successful novels.
The money from book sales and international rights flows in - but not to Sweden.
During the same period, the author has instead founded companies in Malta, which have significantly lower corporate taxes than Sweden.
Tens of millions of kronor will be invested here in the coming years.
Running a business abroad is not illegal, and in connection with Paradisläckan in the autumn of 2017 will prove to be a relatively common way of reducing their tax expenses for several Swedish entrepreneurs.
When the information in Paradisläckan is published in the media, however, a debate is raised about tax morale, and after SVT's revelation that the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's chairman Leif Östling is included in the leak, he resigns from his post.
This after asking the acclaimed question "What the hell do I get for my money?"
regarding the Swedish tax system.
Investing money abroad for tax reasons is also described as a problem by the Swedish government, which believes that it harms Swedish welfare.
Since last winter, several measures have also been discussed within the EU to increase transparency in low-tax countries.
Withheld million revenues for the Swedish Tax Agency
This story could have ended here, but it is what happens to the money afterwards that makes the Paradise Author stand out from the crowd.
During the years the money flows into the Malta companies, the author is abroad.
But after a few years he returns to Sweden, and then begins to empty the companies in Malta in the form of dividends.
In the first year in Sweden, the figure lands at SEK 9 million, in the second year 3.6 million and in the third year 2.4 million, before the companies in Malta are completely wound up.
But during the same period, the author does not report any of the payments of a total of 15 million to the Swedish Tax Agency, despite the fact that the person in question is now written in Sweden.
- If you live in Sweden, you are taxable for all income, regardless of whether it comes from abroad or Sweden.
Then you must also declare them in Sweden.
If you have paid tax in another country, you can possibly get a settlement for that tax, says Tomas Algotsson, unit manager at the Swedish Tax Agency, about what applies to dividends from companies abroad.
- It can be a tax crime if it is about money that has been failed to be paid in Sweden, he continues.
The author: "Must be a misconception"
In recent months, Kulturnyheterna has tried in vain to get an interview with the author, about her views on the payments and whether they followed Swedish law.
The author does not want to appear for an interview, but in the end we get an email:
“The only activity that occurred after I returned to Sweden was a protracted liquidation process.
Feel free to try opening a bank account in Malta.
It will probably be fixed in a week.
Then try to withdraw the money you deposited - count on a couple of years ", writes the author.
The author also believes that tax has already been paid in the countries where the income has been earned, and that he should therefore not have to declare his corporate dividends in Sweden.
The fact that the Swedish Tax Agency believes that payments from a company to its owners are taxable is unreasonable:
According to the Swedish Tax Agency, these can be tax offenses when dividends from companies located abroad are not reported: Have you complied with Swedish legislation in the payments from the holding company?
“I do not understand the Swedish Tax Agency's reasoning.
It must reasonably be in the country where you are registered when the income is earned that these are to be taxed.
If I live in a country other than Sweden and earn a certain amount of money, tax for it and deposit it in the bank, should I tax again if I withdraw the money after a move home to Sweden?
No, it must be a misconception ”.
"Morality is grayscale"
For the sake of clarity, it should be clarified that the dividends that the author has made come from a holding company where he is the owner, and not from a bank account that he writes in the email.
According to the Swedish Tax Agency, this type of income must be reported, but the author's declarations during this period do not include the 15 million.
"I'm lousy at finances.
Others take care of it for me.
Which of course does not mean that I am free from moral responsibility ", writes the author of Paradise in his answer.
How do you view the moral aspect of all this?
Morality is gray-scale.
Of course, it was financially advantageous to have a company in Malta, otherwise I would never have received the advice and never taken it.
To the extent that I have behaved morally / financially questionable, I want to claim that in that case I am a very small fish in a rather murky pond ”.