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Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre goes to the polls to increase the estate tax by 7.1 billion in 2021. But this is not an upper limit for the tax level, confirms the Labor Party.
The Labor Party has presented the fiscal policy for which the party will go to the polls in 2021. The party freezes the general level of taxes and income tax for the next four years. Corporation tax must also be kept calm.
The exception is the wealth tax.
This will increase the party by NOK 7.1 billion in 2021. And in the following years there may be more.
Because the Labor Party makes a clear distinction between income taxes and wealth taxes.
The wealth tax increase is independent of the electoral promise that the general level of taxes and duties for individuals income should remain unchanged from the 2020 level.
The wealth tax is, therefore, the only tax that will provide the state with higher revenues.
And the Labor Party can raise the estate tax over and over again, without breaking its own promise.
The red-green government of Stoltenberg 2 once made several changes to the wealth tax.
I have not blocked the wealth tax
The Storting representative, Eigil Knutsen, is on the Labor Party’s finance committee.
It highlights that the proposed changes to the wealth tax for 2021 is what the party believes are “sensible measures for the next legislature.”
– Next year, our proposal provides $ 7.1 billion in higher tax revenue. Other years can give more or less, it is about how fortunes develop.
– But neither has it locked itself in a specific facility, as it has done with the corporation tax. Can you make wealth tax changes without breaking any electoral promises?
– Yes, it is true that our tax promise applies to the general level of taxes and fees for people’s income. Wealth comes out of it, he says.
Labor Party fiscal politician Eigil Knutsen confirms that the party has not locked itself into a specific wealth tax model during the next term. Photo: Dan P. Neegaard
Maintains freedom of action from 2016
Labor promises to keep corporate tax unchanged at the current 22 percent. For wealth tax, it is different.
The Aps promise for this is formulated as follows:
- The wealth tax will be in line with the 2016 tax assessment: those with the highest fortunes must tax more and the lower deduction will be increased.
However, the tax agreement that the Labor Party entered into with, among others, the Conservatives in 2016, is silent on wealth tax rates. In 2016, the Labor Party was very concerned about this.
– Now we have the freedom of action assured. We have increased the wealth tax before, and it may be relevant to do so again, the party’s fiscal policy spokesperson, Marianne Marthinsen, told Klassekampen.
The Labor Party still has this freedom of action, confirms Eigil Knutsen.
– Yes, in the tax settlement we agreed to disagree. Conservatives want to deviate from the estate tax, and now we are proposing to raise rates to what we believe is the correct level for the next term, Knutsen says today.
Støre himself has announced that the party may propose further changes to the wealth tax, in the form of relief. The facility now proposed by the Labor Party means that the lower deduction will increase by NOK 200,000, from NOK 1.5 to 1.7 million.
For TV 2, Støre has denied that the match is locked on this lower deduction.
– No, we have not established such a limit. But we do this year after year. Now we go from one and a half to 1.7, and that is a good move for some who today pay wealth taxes, which they don’t have to pay later. They are in the lower groups, he told the channel.
The Labor Party emphasizes that if it becomes relevant to increase the rates on the estate tax, the lower deduction will also increase.
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Støre presents a program without fiscal promise
May increase tax levels
In short, this means that the Labor Party is not limited to a certain level of taxes and duties. As long as the level is raised by wealth tax, the Labor Party has not set an upper tax limit.
Knutsen also confirms this to Aftenposten.
– But the level of taxes for people’s income will remain at the 2020 level, he says.
This contrasts with the fiscal promise that the party went to the polls in 2017.
Ahead of the crisis Labor Party elections in 2017, Støre clarified the party’s fiscal policy before the elections. The Labor Party leader told DN that over the next four years, the ruling Labor Party would raise taxes by as much as NOK 15 billion above the then tax level.
APS ‘strategy now also differs from Stoltenberg 2’s red-green government promise to keep the overall tax level at the same level as in 2004.
Right: It should concern most people
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Henrik Asheim (H) believes that the signals from the Labor Party should worry most people.
– When they do not want to say how high the tax burden will be for them in the government, it indicates that we are talking about important sums. Four years ago, they promised $ 15 billion in tax increases and lost the election for it. The strategy this time around is obviously trying to hide how much more taxes they will collect.
– Isn’t it unreasonable to demand that the Labor Party commit to a certain level of taxation? Neither is the right.
– The big difference between the Labor Party and the Conservative Party in this context is that our aim is to reduce the tax burden for both individuals and businesses, while the Labor Party will increase them. When the Labor Party does not want to say how much higher the tax bill will be, it is more serious at a time when companies across the country are going through a difficult time and, above all, they demand predictability to be able to take care of people’s jobs .
Knutsen of the Labor Party scoffs at the criticism.
The richest 10% pay 90 percent of the estate tax, so most people should worry about welfare cuts when conservatives cut taxes even further for the richest, he says.
