The Confederation of Icelandic Employers (SA) strongly oppose a proposed tax increase on heavy industry, fishing and the banks, saying that the tax rate is already as high as it should be. A look at the actual data for the rest of Europe tells a different story.
In a letter from SA to Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Finance Minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, RÚV reports, the organisation says that they believe that any proposed tax increase on these industries would be too high. Rather, they propose job creation by encouraging investment.
Despite their complaints about the current tax rate, European data shows that Iceland is actually far below the European average for corporate tax rates.
Corporate tax in Iceland is 15%. In Denmark, it’s 25%; in Norway, 28%; and in Sweden, 26.3%. Furthermore, if the corporate tax rates of all European countries are put together, the average is just around 23.2%.
With Iceland’s corporations so well situated, in both a Scandinavian and a European context, SA’s statement that corporate tax is as high as it can possibly go is demonstrably untrue.
How the Icelandic government plans to respond remains to be seen.
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