Technical Assistance Reports

An IMF technical assistance mission estimated income underreporting among Sweden’s self-employed taxpayers using Household Budget Survey data from 2003–2021. While the estimates are subject to methodological limitations, the results suggest that self-employed households spend about 9 percent more on food than wage earners with the same reported income, corresponding to an estimated underreporting rate of roughly 38 percent. The resulting time series may provide a useful tool for monitoring compliance trends and informing future compliance research.