Swedish Police and National Tax Agency Among Top-Ranked Trusted Authorities...The Secret: 'Voluntary Law Compliance Strategy'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The main reason why trust in power institutions such as the National Tax Service and the police remains at the top level in Sweden is due to the 'voluntary law compliance strategy.'

The Korea Taxpayers Federation announced on the 12th that in a 2019 survey conducted by Kantar Sifo, a representative public opinion research institute in Sweden, asking about the trustworthiness of 68 national institutions, media, and private companies within the country, the state-owned liquor company Systembolaget ranked first, the police second, and the National Tax Service seventh.

In this survey, higher education institutions such as universities ranked third, IKEA fourth, the National Intelligence Service fifth, and the state-owned radio sixth.

The Taxpayers Federation analyzed that unlike Korea, the high trust in Sweden's power institutions is partly due to low corruption and transparent administration, but mainly stems from the voluntary law compliance strategy and changes in the attitude toward the public.

The voluntary law compliance strategy is a strategy of exercising power legally based on fairness rather than compliance through coercion and threats in the exercise of state power. The Swedish National Tax Service employs a trust-based social norm reinforcement strategy to achieve the universal goal of "a society where everyone fairly shares taxes," rather than focusing on individuals, because the motives and causes of tax evasion vary for each taxpayer and it is difficult to directly change an individual's morals or values.

Kim Seontaek, chairman of the Taxpayers Federation, said, "The Swedish National Tax Service has reached a point where it can say its greatest asset is 'trust,'" and emphasized, "For our country's power institutions to be reborn as institutions trusted by the public, a fundamental revision of the voluntary law compliance strategy is inevitable."

Chairman Kim added, "We can gain advice and inspiration from the success story of the Swedish National Tax Service from the perspective of innovation on how a state institution that forcibly collects citizens' money could change so remarkably."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.