Axel Hilling

Project summary

Fairness and legality in income taxation

The aim of the project is to explore how fairness and the principle of legality relate to each other in Swedish income taxation. The project uses this analysis to examine legal developments that have allowed tax strategies involving interest deduction schemes, carried interest and shares held by partners to result in taxation that may be considered unfair.

 

The project aims to increase awareness of the values underlying the tax system and how these values can be reflected in law without compromising legal certainty and predictability. The research is based on an approach known as critical legal positivism. It examines how societal values are reflected in tax law and how financial theory has influenced the way tax rules are interpreted and applied by tax practitioners and the courts.

 

The project is particularly important because it provides a legal analysis of controversial tax rules. So far, much of the criticism of these rules has focused on what tax policy ought to achieve, rather than on the law itself. The project argues that concepts used in tax law should be more clearly rooted in the overall structure and principles of the tax system. This could help make Swedish income tax law more consistent and robust, while also contributing to the growing discussion about a future reform of the Swedish tax system.