Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Page 291

PROLEMS OF TAXATION IN DENMARK 257
at the sale of bonds (as is already done at the sale of shares).
None of these proposals won the approval of the Government
and the Rigsdag, although they were supported by most weighty
reasons, still, the Committee had not been active in vain. The
Act of the 3rd of July 1943 imposed on both persons and
companies and co-operative societies under certain specified con-
ditions partly to pay a tax on profits due to fluctuations in the
market during the war (in the case of the latter two groups it
was to be an excess profits duty), partly to undertake a
“compulsory saving”. The amount thus gained (in 1943—44 on
the first account 54.7 mill. Kr., on the second 46.2 mill. Kr.)
the State is bound to deposit in the National Bank of Denmark.
As for the part referring to the tax on war profits (respectively
the excess profits duty), its use should be decided by a special
act of the Rigsdag. The saved amount is to be paid back in
full at the latest before the end of 1948, and from the ist of
January 1945 an interest of 2 per cent. per annum is to be
paid on it.
As a prelude to the policy of appropriation thus started, the
right of the State to be free to dispose of part of the yield of
the recent increases in the taxation of tobacco and alcoholic
beverages was restricted by an Act of the 2nd of June 1943,
and accordingly the above-mentioned tied-up money in 1943—
44 was increased by 41.1 mill. Kr. so that down to the 3ist
of March 1944 a total amount of 142.0 mill. Kr. was deposited
in the National Bank. This avails little, considering the huge
increase in the deposits of the banks and savings banks taking
place during these years (in the spring of 1945 a total of about
7.5 milliard Kr. as against about 4 milliards at the beginning of
the war), and the Danish population therefore must be prepared
for an increase in the burden of taxation rather than a relief,
although the total income of the State in the fiscal year of 1943—
44 approached 2 milliard Kr. (about 750 millions moreover were
collected for the benefit of the municipalities). Thus it is easily
understood that such tax-payers as have particularly benefited
by the state of the market during the war are in the danger
zone, and they will hardly escape having to pay a materially
greater part of their excess profits than the one which the State
may claim at present, but also the lower tax-payers will presum-
ably be obliged to take a hand. Then the question of the right
distribution of the burden of taxation arises with a vengeance,