Right-wing leader Erna Solberg has been clear for years that her party will not contribute to the creation of zero-tax payers. But now Høyre deputy leader Tina Bru claims that it does not make sense to talk about the term “zero tax payers”. She claims that no search-rich Norwegians are permanent zero-tax payers.
The backdrop is the fact that the four bourgeois parties agree to remove the wealth tax on working capital. “Now the whole bourgeois side stands together to remove this harmful tax from Norwegian workplaces. Then we’ll get it done,” said Erna Solberg recently to TV 2.
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The Conservative Party and FRP have long held this position. The new thing is that KrF and Venstre are also involved in politics. And it is great news that the Conservative Party has adjusted the justification. Erna Solberg no longer sits quietly in the boat, but is out rowing. She now makes a point that rich Norwegians can be zero tax payers for a single year without them being zero tax payers in her eyes.
This is and will be an explanation.
It is appropriate to recall what Erna Solberg wrote in her book “People, not billions” in 2011. Here she promised that the party, under her leadership, “will not join a government that accepts that people become zero tax payers”. A complete removal of wealth tax will lead to many more zero-tax payers in this country.
Statistics Norway tells us that 623,400 Norwegians paid wealth tax in 2022. Among these, there were 24,800 people who did not pay income tax, i.e. were zero-tax payers based on such a definition. Furthermore, it is part of the picture that 16,400 of these were pensioners with such a low pension that they did not pay income tax.
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Wealth tax has both positive and negative sides. It has a redistributive effect and prevents us from getting even more zero-tax payers. On the other hand, only Norwegian owners of companies are taxed, because foreign owners escape. In addition, wealth tax must also be paid when the company makes a loss. And entrepreneurs are often hit hard.
It is part of history that Erna Solberg has not found a solution to the challenge she described so well already in 2011. It did not help that she was prime minister for eight years and had a skilled civil service at her disposal. Therefore, the Conservative Party is satisfied with wanting to remove the wealth tax on working capital, i.e. shares, commercial property and working capital in companies. As a result, pensioners will have to foot most of the bill.
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From the Conservative Party’s side, it is now indicated that the tax rules have been tightened in recent years. It is also pointed out that the party has gained more knowledge about who the zero-tax payers are. Erna Solberg claims that people with a good ability to pay tax do just that. But to Aftenposten, she adds: “In some years it may still be that someone pays tax, because they are still living off the dividends they taxed much of the previous year”. This is the rationale for the new view of zero-tax payers.
The Conservative leader is no longer as firm as she was in 2011. She should therefore admit that there will be more zero-tax payers if wealth tax is reduced. Honesty lasts longest when the numbers speak so clearly. It is and will be an excuse when the Conservative Party now claims that it does not make sense to talk about zero-tax payers. Erna Solberg has bitten herself in the tail.