There is good news for the 750,000 wood-burning stove owners in Denmark as the government has decided it is time to scrap the unpopular wood-burning tax. The bad news is that everyone else will have to foot the bill.
The move will save Danish companies and private citizens a 15.4 billion kroner tax bill looking ahead to 2020, but the tax minister, Morten Østergaard (R) wants to cover those tax loses by increasing the basic tax rate so that every taxpayer pays an additional 1,270 kroner a year.
“I have proposed to the parties that we completely scrap the energy security tax, including the room-warming fees that were established as part of the VK government’s spring package in 2009,” Østergaard told Jyllands-Posten.
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DI: jobs could be lost
Most of the political spectrum is pleased that the controversial wood-burning tax will finally be abolished, but were against filling the revenue void through increased taxes.
”They should forget about that approach,” Per Clausen, a spokesperson for Enhedslisten said.
Industry advocates Dansk Industri (DI) warned that increasing the basic tax rate would lead to job cuts – a claim that Østergaard refuted.
“Out analyses show that it will be cheaper for the Danish if we removed the tax and replaced it with an increased basic tax rate,” Østergaard said.
The tax minister said that calculations showed that the tax shift would actually save every Dane 220 kroner every year.
