Two steps forward, one step back...

Yesterday, the consultation period for the memorandum that proposes an extension of the current RUT deduction ended. The proposal, which is part of the cross-bloc agreement on migration and integration policy presented at the end of October, means that IT services (so-called RIT deduction) will also be included in the tax deduction from August 1

In our consultation response, we are of course in favor of this extension. It is something we have been working for for several years and something that will not only increase demand for this type of service among our member companies, but also open up a whole new market. Without a tax subsidy, the price for the end consumer has simply been too high, so the interest in buying these services has been virtually non-existent. But now that the costs have been halved, the willingness to buy is guaranteed to increase - this is shown not least by the Demoskop survey that we and Almega commissioned a year ago.

These are two big steps towards the possibility of tax deductions for IT services in the home. Very gratifying!

However, I also share the concern that both Almega and Företagarna, but also the Swedish Public Employment Service, have flagged; the ceiling for how much you can deduct when you hire RUT services was lowered at the turn of the year from SEK 50,000 to SEK 25,000. This level is proposed to remain, despite proposed extensions of the deduction. The risk is simply that some people will hit the ceiling of SEK 25,000 and then not demand the services as much as they would if the ceiling was SEK 50,000. The concrete consequences of this may be that people are forced to choose between cleaning or gardening services on the one hand and help with installing the new router or operating system on the other. In that case, the desired effects on the labor market of extending the deduction - i.e. more jobs - will not occur to the same extent.

One step back...