Happy Taxpayers? Is That A Joke? Maybe Not
Just hearing about taxes is enough for some people to get goosebumps, let alone paying them. It is certainly understandable as who likes to pay money to the government, right? However, there are people happy to pay taxes, in a country that is known for having some of the highest taxes in the world and the country's tax agency is one of people's most trusted institutions.
Paying Taxes?
Now you may be rolling your eyes, wondering if I'm drunk, crazy, on drugs or all of the above but I assure you, it's not the case. There's at least one country in the world that fits the profile, and that's Sweden.
Image by Richard Taimalie from Pixabay
But before I go into details, let's see why people hate taxman and don't like to pay taxes.
The most common reason is that they consider it a waste, modern times robbery if you like as they don't see results. Taxes are payed for a reason and funds must be used to make life better, invest in infrastructure, healthcare, education etc. However, in many countries taxpayers money end up in the pockets of government officials, making them even richer, or are poured into endless holes, dead projects are financed just to give companies close to the government the opportunity to milk public funds. After watching public funds draining for years and politicians getting rich, who can blame them, right?
Corruption?
One week ago I did a post about public corruption as it's an interesting topic, even though it's sad what is going on in some countries.
According to Transparency International, Sweden is third on the list along with three other countries (Finland, Singapore, Switzerland), with a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 85, 100 being the highest, meaning very clean.
The study found that corruption in Sweden can mostly be described as being simple in nature, in that most cases involve smaller amounts, conference travel, dining and such. source
If conference travel and dining with certain persons is considered corruption, then in some countries all officials should be jailed.
With very little corruption, Sweden can concentrate on spending taxpayers money on important things.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
What You Get For Your Money
Two major areas I have to mention here, healthcare and education. Let's start with education.
Education
Education in Sweden is free, from bottom to top, even collage and university courses. According to the guy in the video below, you can get several university diplomas for free.
My country Romania has a combined education system at University level. The state will sponsor x amount of places which they pay for and then everyone else has to self fund. The state funded education is limited as it is only for the top students leaving everyone else to find their finances that is required. Once you benefited of state sponsored education, you can't get another one. Only once is available for everyone.
Student loans are handled differently to what we see in other countries around the world. For example a 1000 euro student loan has to be paid back within 24 months. You can opt for a 150 000 euro loan, paid back within 10 years but you need to put your property up as a guarantee.
Let's take the U.S. for example, where education is free up to a certain level, ending with high school. Collage, university education must be paid, students are granted a student loan to allow them to study, that will be repaid after graduation. This means every collage or university graduate is starting life with a huge burden already. No pressure, right?
Healthcare
Healthcare in Sweden is free and I'm pretty sure it's of high quality.
Romania has a funny way of dealing with healthcare. Every employee is insured by default and benefits of free healthcare, which is a joke really, as only a part of medication is covered by your insurance and many times you have to pay for consultations, lab testing as well.
The US is not any different, if you have insurance, you get medical care, up to what your insurance can cover. If you don't have insurance ... well, you're out of luck.
Maternity Leave
In Sweden there's paid maternity leave of 1.5 years available for either the mother or the father.
Romania has a good policy regarding maternity leave. There's a paid maternity leave of two years for one of the parents, that can be extended for another year but with less payment.
The US is the only OECD country without a national statutory paid maternity, paternity or parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) enables some employees to take up to 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave but only 60% of workers are eligible. source
Needless to say what this means. Not only you have to go back to work and leave your child at home, you have to pay for someone in case you don't have parents to help. Studies show how important the first years in a child's life is, so leaving your kid with a total stranger or your elderly parents is not always the best solution.
These are only two categories I find important to mention, but I guess I could go on and on about what's good in Sweden and why the system works. Even immigrants are happy to pay taxes as they know what they are paying for.
Sometimes in some countries (ok, most of them) the system is inefficient, sometimes those responsible of managing funds are incompetent, ignorant, sometimes all of the above.
Sweden is a country where people are happy to pay taxes and I hope it stays that way. Sweden can be a model to many countries, applying their system could help in changing things. Will it happen? I don't think I'll live that long to see it, but it would be nice.
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