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Denmark suspects two Swedes over explosion at tax authority

Two Swedish citizens are suspected in connection with last week’s explosion at the Danish Tax Agency. One of the two is in police custody.

Published: 14 August 2019 12:05 CEST
Denmark suspects two Swedes over explosion at tax authority
Copenhagen Police superintendent Jørgen Bergen Skov addresses the press. Photo: Philip Davali / Ritzau Scanpix

Copenhagen Police superintendent Jørgen Bergen Skov confirmed the arrests to press on Wednesday morning.

“Both individuals are suspected of carrying out the detonation at the Tax Agency,” Skov said.

One man, aged 22, was arrested in Swedish city Malmö on Tuesday and will be extradited to Denmark. Once he reaches Copenhagen he will appear for preliminary court proceedings, which the prosecution will request take place behind closed doors.

Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten reports the 22-year-old has no previous criminal convictions in the country.

The second man, a 23-year-old, is yet to be detained but an international arrest warrant for him has been issued, Skov said.

“During the night, we also searched several addresses in Sweden. We hereby confiscated what we believe to be a car used by the suspects,” he said.

“We have one suspect on the loose, which means we must be careful about what we say, out of consideration for the investigation,” he added.

The superintendent did not add any detail about how police were able to connect the two individuals to the August 6th explosion.

Skov also stressed that police do not believe the tax authority blast to be connected to a similar incident at a police station in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighbourhood in the early hours of Saturday.

“There is nothing to suggest (a connection),” he said.

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MONEY

Denmark scraps popular tax deduction for home improvements

A tax deduction for home improvements, the “håndværkerfradrag”, is to be scrapped in 2022 after parties agreed to end it in next year’s budget.

Published: 6 December 2021 16:12 CET
A popular tax subsidy for home improvements, the
A popular tax subsidy for home improvements, the "håndværkerfradrag", will end in Denmark on April 1st 2022. Photo: Signe Goldmann/Ritzau Scanpix

The government, along with its left wing allies Red Green Alliance, Social Liberals and Socialist People’s Party; and minor parties Alternative and the Christian Democrats, presented the 2022 budget on Monday, including an agreement to drop the home building subsidy.

Sofie Carsten Nielsen, leader of the Social Liberals, said “we are dropping the building subsidy that has ignited the already overheated housing and construction market”.

READ ALSO: Four ways to (legally) lower your tax bill in Denmark

The tax deduction will be removed from April 1st next year. Other tax deductions that can be applied for home services, including cleaning and childcare, are retained.

Tax subsidies for people who hire services in their homes, termed boligjobordningen, were broadened last year as part of government measures to support the economy during the coronavirus crisis.

The provision allowed for a higher tax deduction for the encompassed home services.

Demand for builders has since increased so dramatically that supply can no longer meet demand. As such, the parties behind the budget deal reason that the deduction is no longer needed.

Additionally, the Danish central bank, Nationalbanken, has warned that high demand could contribute to an overheating of the housing market.

Although the deduction was adjusted five years ago to favour green home improvements, the government’s allied parties still maintained they wanted to scrap it.

Nielsen said on Monday that the deduction has put Denmark’s building trade under strain.

“This is an economically responsible budget which also contains huge green decisions,” the Social Liberal leader said.

Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said that the deduction would remain applicable to other trades, including cleaning, in order to prevent cash-in-hand arrangements.

“The biggest challenge we have in regard to the Danish service industry is in building and extensions. That’s why we are revoking the building element of the (subsidies),” Wammen said.

“But we are very concerned with keeping down cash-in-hand work in the service sector,” he added.

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