In news’s statement, Thea Kjendlie criticizes me, without me fully recognizing my opinions. I would still like to thank you for an opportunity to come to terms with some widespread ideas about tax, business and how we create value together. Let me start by addressing the word “value creators”, which for Kjendlie is synonymous with the rich owners who travel to Switzerland. I think all debates about this must start with the fact that the value creators are the ones who carry out the work. Owners are always part of a community, and no one creates value alone. We are all dependent on each other. It is also important to remember that ordinary wage earners pay a far greater proportion of their income in tax than the very richest do. The second thing I want to address is the idea of a tax competition. She believes that Norway is losing, and that the wealth tax makes us a worse country to own and run a business in than a country without wealth tax. It is not true. Our country is regularly named as one of the very best countries in the world to run and own a business. There is good reason to assume that this is because we are a society with a high level of trust, good infrastructure and a safe welfare state. A redistributive tax system contributes to this. There will also always be other countries where you can set a lower tax rate. Running such a competition becomes a race to the bottom, where tax havens like Switzerland will always win. And thus they undermine the rest of the world’s opportunities to create good welfare states with low inequality and high trust. The strange thing about this debate is that it is about words, and not the actions of the super rich who have gone to Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. When tax evaders travel with their wealth, they undermine our common wealth. It is harmful to support for the tax system. And that has concrete consequences. Firstly, it means that all of us who remain must pay more tax. And for every person who travels, it becomes easier for all those who travel afterwards. Perhaps that makes it more socially acceptable to evade taxes. Why should most people pay their taxes with pleasure, when many of the country’s absolute richest men can escape? If Røkke hadn’t already left, I wouldn’t have asked him to quit and leave. Now I come from a part of the country that has had a particularly hard encounter with Røkke, more than other parts of Norway. He was allocated quotas without living up to his obligations to deliver to coastal communities in the north. The fishing industry was hit hard, and local communities were hit hard. The wealth tax that the Swiss refugees are fleeing is a fair tax. It is a tax on personal wealth, where people who have large assets in their personal ownership and control pay a small proportion of that wealth to the community each year. It is one of the most important distribution mechanisms we have. Without it, many of the country’s very, very richest would hardly have paid a penny in taxes. And wealth tax contributes to the community’s benefits: education, infrastructure, care for the elderly, security. Precisely those values which then end up contributing to making Norwegian business life strong. And the research strongly suggests that it is not detrimental to Norwegian business, despite persistent attempts by some of the country’s richest people to create the impression of the opposite. Follow the debate:
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The price to travel – Speech
