Support measures at focus in the government's spring budget

On the morning of 15 April, the Swedish government presented its proposal for the spring budget. As expected, the budget contains measures to mitigate the spread of the virus and the socio-economic consequences of covid-19. In total the spring budget includes measures of approximately SEK 107 billion.

The economic conditions have changed drastically since the budget for 2020 was presented in September 2019 due to the spread of covid-19. During the spring, the government has presented five amending budgets with measures to reduce the socio-economic consequences and the spread of the virus.

The support measures has included, among others;

• the possibility to provisional support for short term work
• postponement with tax payments
• temporary reduction of employer contributions for four months for up to 30 employees
• temporary reduction of social security contributions
• the qualifying day for sick pay will be temporarily discontinued
• temporary reimbursement of employers' sick pay costs from the state
• possibility for self-employees to receive standardized sickness benefit.

Two new tax proposals

In addition to the different support measures presented in the spring budget it also included two tax proposals.

Limitation of the investment deduction

According to the proposal the investment deduction should be limited to investments in companies that have been operating for less than seven years. Furthermore should the investor deductions not be granted to companies whose shares are traded on a multi trading platform or similar marketplace outside the European Economic Area.

Introduction of chemical tax

The Swedish Government proposes to tax sales of electronic goods from foreign sellers to Swedish consumers. The chemical tax will be levied if annual sales within the EU exceed a threshold of SEK 100,000.

Comment

That the spring budget would include additional support measures linked to covid-19 was no news. Neither was the fact that the spring budget did not include a lot of new tax proposals. The budget contains additional measures for approximately SEK 107 billion, which are expected to deteriorate public finances by SEK 95 billion. The Government also believes that the expenditure ceiling for 2020 should be increased by SEK 350 billion to be able to take the necessary measures going forward.

Contact our hotline

At PwC we want to help companies through these times of insecurities. We have set up a free hotline where you can call and get answers to your questions related to the government's support measures and other covid-19 related business issues.