Swedish politician fined over tax offences

[Player Twelve]

Sweden's former national coordinator against violent extremism has been handed a suspended sentence and fined 23,000 kronor ($2,780) for tax offences.
In total, Mona Sahlin has been fined 50 day fines totalling 23,000 kronor, for two instances of tax evasion relating to 2015 and 2016.

"It's income which she didn't account for in the declaration as a sole trader," district prosecutor Arne Fors told the TT newswire.

Altogether, the evasion amounts to 217,000 kronor ($2,630), according to Aftonbladet, which cited the prosecutor.

"She has admitted the crime and accepted the penalty," Fors confirmed.

The case includes three monthly salary instalments paid out to an employee which were not accounted for in her tax declaration. According to Aftonbladet, the employee was a bodyguard involved in a previous probe of Sahlin.

Sahlin, who is also the former leader of the governing Social Democrats, resigned last year after reports emerged that she had signed a certificate significantly exaggerating her bodyguard's 43,000 kronor monthly salary, saying that he earned 120,000 kronor so that he would be granted a mortgage and could buy an apartment.

When confronted by the Expressen tabloid, Sahlin initially claimed that she had paid the difference out of her own pocket, before retracting that statement when it was proven by Expressen to be false.

When the story about the certificate broke it was also revealed that she owed a significant debt to Sweden's state bailiff, Kronofogdemyndigheten, in unpaid taxes. She subsequently paid off the 215,000 kronor debt, but Expressen later claimed that she had again more failed to pay all of the taxes she owes, to a total of 361,782 kronor.

In February this year, Sahlin admitted that she had committed a crime and her lawyer said that she was willing to pay a fine.

At the time, her lawyer said Sahlin's intention had never been to provide misleading information for the financial benefit of herself or anyone else.

"When she wrote these certificates her starting point was that this would end up being his salary, but afterwards that didn't happen, and above all it wasn't the case when she wrote the certificates. As such the legal assessment is that there has been a misrepresentation," her lawyer, Claes Borgström, told TT at the time.

https://www.thelocal.se/20171124/swe...r-tax-offences

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Suspended sentence? Likely that a normal citizen would have gotten a prison sentence.

[cocacolawheresthesoda]

Incredible crime, she should be executed.

[OnlineSamantha]

Lmao that is insanely wrong. 217,000 kroner isn't $2,630. It's $26,560. And you typically wouldn't get a prison sentence for tax evasion with this small an amount, at least not here in Denmark. It's really scummy that a politician did that but it's no surprise. At least she admitted it.

[Deleted]

When it comes to most politicans, I'm firmly in the 'hanging is too humane a punishment' camp. But tax laws in several european countries are so convoluted, that it's incedibly easy to make a mistake, miss a deadline or forget one of the 94 numbers you had to provide.

[Dezerte]

It's common practice to suspend sentence if the missing tax is paid. Happens all the time for the wealthy in Sweden.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skattef%C3%B6rseelse (in Swedish)

[Deleted]

Yes, tax evasion as we know is one of those crimes that is really busting the prisons systems capacity because the tax collectors are well know for being advocates of hard-line long prison time policies.

[want my Slimjim]

Don't blame her, taxes in my former country are absurd. It needs to be lowered.

[Player Twelve]

It's common practice to suspend sentence if the missing tax is paid. Happens all the time for the wealthy in Sweden.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skattef%C3%B6rseelse (in Swedish)

She was sentenced for Skattebrott though, not Skatteförseelse.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skattebrott

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/s...or-skattebrott

Förra S-toppen Mona Sahlin straffas för skattebrott.
Det handlar delvis om utebliven redovisning av tre månadslöner till den så kallade livvakten.
Nu blir följden villkorlig dom och 50 dagsböter på totalt 23 000 kronor.
– Totalt sett handlar det om ett skatteundandragande på över 217 000 kronor. Hon har erkänt brott och godtagit strafföreläggandet, säger kammaråklagare Arne Fors till Nyhetsbyrån Siren.

[Dezerte]

She was sentenced for Skattebrott though, not Skatteförseelse.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skattebrott

Den som frivilligt vidtar åtgärd som leder till att skatten kan påföras, tillgodoräknas eller återbetalas med rätt belopp, skall enligt 12 § skattebrottslagen inte dömas för skattebrott.

[Player Twelve]

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skattebrott

She was sentenced though.

[Dezerte]

She was sentenced though.

According to law she couldn't have been, so I suspect news media is using the term 'skattebrott' a bit loosely here.

[Azadina]

Crime pays apparently. So she got fine that equaled about 10% of the tax evaded sum? How many % would it have been to pay the tax?

[Deleted]

Being a great example for her citizens.

[Xarkan]

Crime pays apparently. So she got fine that equaled about 10% of the tax evaded sum? How many % would it have been to pay the tax?

Pays how?
She paid the tax debt (eventually)
She got a fine on top of that

At least thats how i read that text

[Aggrophobic]

Don't blame her, taxes in my former country are absurd. It needs to be lowered.

If you no longer live there, why does it matter?

[Azadina]

Pays how?
She paid the tax debt (eventually)
She got a fine on top of that

At least thats how i read that text

When the story about the certificate broke it was also revealed that she owed a significant debt to Sweden's state bailiff, Kronofogdemyndigheten, in unpaid taxes. She subsequently paid off the 215,000 kronor debt, but Expressen later claimed that she had again more failed to pay all of the taxes she owes, to a total of 361,782 kronor.

In February this year, Sahlin admitted that she had committed a crime and her lawyer said that she was willing to pay a fine.

Doesn't sound like paying the debts all too well. All it says is she paid some, then was willing to pay the fine. Fine that was far less than the tax evasion amounted to.

[Xarkan]

Doesn't sound like paying the debts all too well. All it says is she paid some, then was willing to pay the fine. Fine that was far less than the tax evasion amounted to.

The expressen claimed

The case however was about tax evasion amounting to 215000 (according to the text)

[Azadina]

The expressen claimed

The case however was about tax evasion amounting to 215000 (according to the text)

I'm willing to consider their claim over hers, seeing how they busted her lies before, as mentioned in the article.

[Aggrophobic]

Sweden's former national coordinator against violent extremism has been handed a suspended sentence and fined 23,000 kronor ($2,780) for tax offences.
In total, Mona Sahlin has been fined 50 day fines totalling 23,000 kronor, for two instances of tax evasion relating to 2015 and 2016.

"It's income which she didn't account for in the declaration as a sole trader," district prosecutor Arne Fors told the TT newswire.

Altogether, the evasion amounts to 217,000 kronor ($2,630), according to Aftonbladet, which cited the prosecutor.

"She has admitted the crime and accepted the penalty," Fors confirmed.

The case includes three monthly salary instalments paid out to an employee which were not accounted for in her tax declaration. According to Aftonbladet, the employee was a bodyguard involved in a previous probe of Sahlin.

Sahlin, who is also the former leader of the governing Social Democrats, resigned last year after reports emerged that she had signed a certificate significantly exaggerating her bodyguard's 43,000 kronor monthly salary, saying that he earned 120,000 kronor so that he would be granted a mortgage and could buy an apartment.

When confronted by the Expressen tabloid, Sahlin initially claimed that she had paid the difference out of her own pocket, before retracting that statement when it was proven by Expressen to be false.

When the story about the certificate broke it was also revealed that she owed a significant debt to Sweden's state bailiff, Kronofogdemyndigheten, in unpaid taxes. She subsequently paid off the 215,000 kronor debt, but Expressen later claimed that she had again more failed to pay all of the taxes she owes, to a total of 361,782 kronor.

In February this year, Sahlin admitted that she had committed a crime and her lawyer said that she was willing to pay a fine.

At the time, her lawyer said Sahlin's intention had never been to provide misleading information for the financial benefit of herself or anyone else.

"When she wrote these certificates her starting point was that this would end up being his salary, but afterwards that didn't happen, and above all it wasn't the case when she wrote the certificates. As such the legal assessment is that there has been a misrepresentation," her lawyer, Claes Borgström, told TT at the time.

https://www.thelocal.se/20171124/swe...r-tax-offences

- - - Updated - - -

Suspended sentence? Likely that a normal citizen would have gotten a prison sentence.

Also, why do you keep posting swedish news on here? Does the average MMO-C reader actually care about swedish politics? I mean, at all?

[Xarkan]

I'm willing to consider their claim over hers, seeing how they busted her lies before, as mentioned in the article.

Really... wasnt expressen that paper that printed a column comparing politicians to rats and suggesting killing them with rat poison?