Background
The affair concerns several key pieces of Swedish law, politics and society:
- Domestic help:
- A person who hires someone do work for them is required to report this to the tax authorities and pay a proportion of the wages to the tax authorities (the so-called "employment (payroll) tax, employer's contribution", "Arbetsgivaravgifter" in Swedish). For employees born after 1940 this tax amounted to 32.28% of the wages in 2006. The part of the economy where such services are rendered without being reported to the tax authorities has been referred to as the informal economy or underground economy.
- Politically the issue of tax breaks for domestic help (Swedish: pigdebatten) has been a divisive one in Swedish politics and society for several years. At present such tax breaks do not exist, and the new coalition had put forward the idea of introducing them.
- All persons who own a television set are required to pay a TV licence (Swedish: TV-avgift), if several people live in a household it is enough to pay a single licence. It is a crime for the owner of a television not to pay the TV licence, and punishable with a fine. Previous convictions indicate that the fine is between 1,000 and 3,000 kronor, and the conviction rate has been approximately 50%. The fee is collected by Radiotjänst i Kiruna AB, a private corporation owned by the public service corporations through a non-profit foundation.
- A Member of Parliament (MP) who loses their seat after an election is entitled to parliamentary compensation (Swedish: inkomstgaranti) in order to facilitate the transition from office. This compensation is reduced if the MP receives compensation from another source, such as a salary or other income, the parliamentary compensation is reduced by the same amount. In essence the parliamentary compensation acts as an income guarantee during a transition period.
- A Swedish MP is issued with a credit card from the Riksdag which is only to be used for expenses associated with official business, such as travel and accommodation.
Read more about this topic: Minister Affair At The Announcement Of The Reinfeldt Cabinet
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