The taxes in Sweden used to be much higher than in Denmark or Norway but have been dropping slowly since the early 80s. The current conservative government in particular has been very aggressive when it comes to pushing for lower taxes.

People in Sweden were used to the high tax rates and no one really protested any more; most simply gave up. It was a famous children’s books author who unwittingly caused an embarrassment to the liberal government of Social-Democrats (equivalent to Democrats in the US). Her name was Astrid Lindgren and if you have kids – she wrote the “Pippi Longstocking” series and many other children’s books.

Anyways, in 1976 Ms. Lindgren had won a price for one of her stories but didn’t get to keep one penny (or öre ) from her winnings. Her marginal tax rate was determined to be 102% !!!

That’s right! The government took her entire price in taxes AND she had to pay an additional 2% of the winnings from her own savings!!!

They'd been increasing the tax rates year after year and no one "realized" that eventually there wouldn't be anything left to be taken away...

That’s when people finally woke up…



Astrid Lindgren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(...) In 1976, a scandal arose in Sweden when Lindgren's marginal tax rate was publicized to have risen to 102%. This was to be known as the "Pomperipossa effect" from a story she published in Expressen on 3 March 1976. The publication led to a stormy tax debate. In the parliamentary election later in the same year the Social Democrat government was voted out for the first time in 40 years, and the Lindgren tax debate was one of several controversies that may have contributed to this result. (...)