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We knew that Tromsø was the Paris of the Nordic countries. Less well known, but much more serious, is that Bø is the Monaco of Norway.
Ski king Bjørn Dæhlie moves diagonally again. You have now made the long suction journey from Nannestad to Bø in Vesterålen. He will live there as a tax refugee next year.
This week it became clear that Dæhlie bought a small crawl space in the north for 1.2 million.
Read more: Dæhlie becomes a tax refugee from Vesterålen
Speculations on why so many were made that he had to turn to NTB to communicate his case: Yes, he will move there. Because Bø en Vesterålen and Dæhlie have one thing in common: they hate wealth tax. The conservative mayor of the borough became almost world famous this winter when he took the brave deal of the hated tax and lowered it from 0.85 to 0.35 percentage points.
This is how the mayor hoped to tempt fresh capital to the village threatened with eviction.
Dæhlie has lived a rather isolated life after earning everything that could be earned on a pair of skis almost 30 years ago. He hasn’t been watching any of the many reality shows that fill the ranks of former sports heroes. Or been an expert presenter or commentator. No, between the condom suits and now, Dæhlie is best remembered for one thing: He has given a face to the bottomless pain of being rich.
Bjørn Dæhlie is our most successful athlete.
And since we measure it in 2020, it means that he has been the one who best managed the money he earned by going backwards in goals. The money has grown since he retired in 2001, then with about $ 60 million on the books. Today, Dæhlie is our richest athlete with a 500 million dollar fortune. We have all felt in our body the Olympic and World Cup hero of the 90s.
The kindhearted boy from Nannestad used his adventurous career to create a fortune by cashing in on his own name. The clothes with his name are in everyone’s drawers and cupboards. But, of course, it went to real estate. In 2011, he sold the rights to the clothing collection. In 2015, his investment company made a profit of NOK 85 million.
A well-developed competitive instinct has certainly contributed to success. It is not a question of giving up.
Read also: Hadia Tajik: – The right must feel reasonably naked now.
And now it seems that there has been sport in its fight against the wealth tax. In the early summer of three years ago, he appeared during a breakfast meeting under the auspices of the right-wing think tank Civita with his story.
On how damn good it is to be rich in Norway: “It is something incomprehensible to me that I have to get up in the morning and know that I will pay 10,000 crowns that day in estate tax,” he said on VG. A poignant story about how abrupt the transition can be, from a happy and celebrated life as an athlete, to a life of tyrant, but hunted real estate mogul.
Bjørn stepped on the glue and was very quiet. “#Je suis Dæhlie,” wrote one commenter bitterly.
The ski star came out vanished. Although he has never said anything other than that he pays his income tax with relative pleasure like so many others. But they tried to portray Dæhlie as a victim.
Even for good doctors on the right, it’s a tough sell. There is no pity for people who own huge businesses and values. It’s fat to be rich. And you can’t separate a treasure and cry crocodile tears for a few per thousand.
Everything works for them with money: in 1991, company tax in Norway was 50 percent.
Then our neighbors lowered the level and Norway followed it to 28 percent. Taxes paid by businesses jumped from 23 percent to 22 percent last year. The blue government has eliminated the inheritance tax. In this year’s state budget, the property tax has been lowered. The tax on capital income is consistently lower than what an ordinary wage earner pays in taxes.
It has been part to own capital and invest in Norway. And now it’s practically free to borrow money. In less than 30 years, the tax level for our companies has been reduced by 56 percent. It is a myth that the Norwegian tax burden is so high. It is quite normal for the OECD, and it is on the decline.
Still, a savage battle rages against the 0.85 percent estate tax.
Also Read: Labor Rage Against Conservative Decision to Eliminate Estate Tax: – Extremely Irresponsible
So stubborn, or childish if you will, this principled struggle has turned into someone willing to “move” out of the house. I write “move” because that is not what it is about, what Dæhlie does is a defiant protest. It is not a life choice.
If there is business to be done in Bø, it is done no matter where the capitalist lives. It is precisely a characteristic of our time.
There is reason to recall the analysis of economics professor Kalle Moene, because it is very important not to forget the perspectives. These should remind yourself of Dæhlie. Because it is a Det norske product. Volunteering.
Of sport. Of structures based on trust and community.
Which in turn is supported by the state, which in turn gets its muscles through our common skills and tax payments. “I think it’s easy to get rich in Norway,” says Moene. He is a professor of economics at the University of Oslo and claims that Norway has relatively more wealthy people than the United States. Only Sweden and a handful of tax havens have more. For every million Norwegians, there are almost 500 rich people with a fortune of at least 250 million crowns.
That is almost three times more than in the United States. Also, they come super rich. In Norway in 2017, there were more than 60 of these per million of us. They are worth 100 million dollars, or about 800 million crowns.
Almost double that in the country of origin of the dollar.
Also read: Nybø promises more help for nightlife and tourism
The fact that it is easy to make a lot of money in a small Norwegian economy is not because we have more geniuses or more risk takers, but because the Norwegian system with high social security, education and opportunities for everyone, unions and the cooperation provide the best conditions in the world to build businesses and create wealth.
Very little, if anything, indicates that Norway’s stagnation hinders creativity and innovation, or hinders a satisfactory return on invested capital. The so-called Norwegian model, with extensive tripartite cooperation between the state, workers and capital, has optimized conditions for all.
That is why the defiant fight of Bjørn Dæhlie, and his like-minded, against the estate tax by becoming an internally displaced tax refugee to save a few million, is shameful.
It is escaping responsibility. I imagine a child and a companion blushing, patting each other on the forehead: Dad!
But Bjørn’s fight is also a fitting point for this fall’s wealth tax debate. It started with a report showing that the wealth tax is good for Norwegian jobs, but ended in an absurd public debate about the choice of method in economic research.
Scientific evidence that the estate tax is reasonable or 100% rational will never be found. And that’s fine, because it’s about bringing money to the community, but even more about principles and worldviews.
It’s about our richest people not being allowed to adorn themselves with the title of zero taxpayer. Because it is a mockery to all of us.
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