In the last weeks I made so many past observations about live in Sweden that I need to write down here. But today comes first. Today I ran Göteborgs Varvet, apparently the second biggest Half marathon in in the world (Newcastle has the biggest). Apart from and cheering crowds and 35 bands of all types and genres playing all along the track, what I found most likable was the people who made it their task to set up a cosy picnic site with barbecue, beer, crisps and camping chairs just next to the road or in their front gardens, displaying purposely displaying a relaxed atmosphere to contrast the runners struggling to reach their goal. A local Taxi company even put up several posts offering to drive anyone who wants to break off the race home for free. Is there a better way to really put your teeth together and keep going?

But the best ones were the guys sitting somewhere in Slottskogsgatan (a street near Mariaplan), quite at the start of the race. They had their beer and stuff all around their table and behind them a big sign saying "Ge upp och ta en öl! Det är inte värt det" (Give up and take a beer. It's not worth it." I have only run races in Germany and Sweden so I can't really tell, but it seems this sense of humour with a kind of defeating self-irony attached to it is another Swedish specialty.

I guess today is the right day to start my little series about Swedish peculiarities. It's the day when all Swedes with a taxable income perform a the hand-in-your-tax-declaration ritual (or, to make it sound more exotic: the skatteverket-ritual).



It is the last day that you can hand in your income tax declaration for 2007 and why would you want to do it one day too early? And so on this special day you can observe cars, pedestrians and cyclists queuing in the road near the local tax office with a paper-form on the passenger seat, waiting for one of the tax office staff to pass by to collect it. Of course, you can also walk or cycle right up to the the big red plastic container that looks like a garbage can and throw in your declaration yourself.


I was told that people like to perfom this ritual even though these days it is possible to make your declaration via internet or even by SMS if you agree with the way the tax office has filled in your declaration and you simply wish to confirm it.
Yes, it's the tax office that helps you do your declaration and if you don't have special things like two households because of your job or work time abroad without getting compensated for it by your employer, all you have to do is to sign the form (or send an SMS).
And even though you would think that making your tax declaration is about trying to get as much money back as you can, it seems that for most Swedes this is not so much the point (although I know nobody who is not happy to get some money back).

Swedes like to be a big community and it seems that even when you are making your tax declaration, asking some money back from the state, you better get a confirmation that everybody is doing it so that it’s ok. And at the same time, the whole ritual is also about demonstrating the importance of the tax system and that you are actually paying taxes. And paying taxes is still considered important by a vast majority of Swedes. And not only that the others should pay taxes but also oneself is prepared to pay taxes in order to receive good public services.

A recent survey by the newspaper Göteborgs Posten showed that a vast majority of Swedes are happy to pay more taxes in order to get public services. So, I guess that's why making your tax declaration is such a ritual.

That's one of the things I like about Sweden.