pic: Christine Olsson/TT, Ali Lorstani/TT
One of the problems that Sweden has had regarding fighting fraud and other crime has been that the Swedish Tax Agency’s department of tax reporting (beskattningsverksamheten) was sealed from its other departments, such as the department for civil registry (folkbokföringsverksamheten). The one department wasn’t allowed to run a check with the other department that the information they had was accurate. For example, someone in charge of doling out housing benefits (bostadsbidrag) couldn’t check to see if the person seeking the subsidy was actually registered as living at the address they gave on the form, and if they had a right to the assistance.
The new rule also allows checking to see if the employment contract someone uses as a reason for being granted residency is actually backed by a legitimate company that employees people and pays taxes.
The separation between the departments were set up for reasons of personal integrity, but now “Things that weren’t possible eight years ago are possible today” said Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson. ”This is particularly important in these Corona times,” said Andersson, ” because we’re using large amounts of tax payer’s money.”
Sweden’s Radio (SR.se) reports that the regulatory changes will take effect on June 1st.