Denmark's Social Democrats Tack to the Left With Tax Proposals
Denmark's Social Democrats Tack to the Left With Tax Proposals
(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, will introduce stricter caps on executives’ bonuses, higher levies on capital gains and a doubling of inheritance tax if it wins next year’s election.
The proposals unveiled on Tuesday are designed to combat rising inequality, which poses a major problem for the country’s cradle-to-grave welfare state, the party of Mette Frederiksen said.
They represent a tack to the left compared with the Social Democratic government of former leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who served as prime minister between 2011 and 2015, and come in the wake of public outrage over a series of white-collar crimes and a money laundering scandal at Danske, the country’s biggest bank.
The Social Democrats have consistently led in the polls ahead of a general election that must take place by June 17.
The party’s proposals include:
- A wider and stricter cap on bonuses of 20 percent of executives’ salaries
- A ban on companies being able to claim executive pay as corporate costs on salaries exceeding 10 million kroner ($1.5 million).
- Extending the offer of bonuses and stock options to 80 percent of employees
- Mandatory disclosure of management incentive programs
- A doubling, to 30 percent, of tax on inheritances exceeding 3 million kroner
- A higher tax ceiling on capital gains of 52 percent, from its current level of 42 percent
- A European financial transaction tax and EU corporate tax floor
- Unilateral taxation of digital companies
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Levring in Copenhagen at plevring1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Rigillo at nrigillo@bloomberg.net
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