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82 percent of tech cash goes to male entrepreneurs

Sweden may be one of the most gender equal countries in the world, but a new report by DI Digital sheds light on a money divide in the startup world.

Published: 28 November 2016 11:17 CET

82 percent of tech cash goes to male entrepreneurs

2016 has been a record year for investments in IT firms. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

Venture capitalists and business angel investors are expected to have invested 15 billion kronor ($1.63 billion) in Swedish IT companies this year by the end of 2016, according to database Nordic Tech List.

Four percent of 377 investments in 336 businesses have gone to female founders and 14 percent to businesses with both male and female co-founders, reports tech and business site DI Digital.

A total of 82 percent has been invested in companies with only male founders.

“The challenge is that there are so few girls who start tech companies. Venture capital goes mainly to that type of business,” Marie Wall, startup manager at Sweden's Enterprise Ministry, told the newspaper.

“We see the same pattern across the world. Why don't girls go for tech?”

State-run Vinnova split its investments equally between male and female founders. It was followed by the Springfield Project, which gave 50 percent of its cash to businesses run only by men and 20 percent to women, but 30 percent to businesses with male and female co-founders.

The statistics come amid a government push to make companies boost the number of women on boards in Sweden and efforts to persuade more girls to pursue careers in tech.

Earlier this year leading incubator Sting revealed that, for the first time, half of the startups awarded cash in its first investment round of 2016 were run or co-founded by women.

Peo Nilsson, programme manager and business coach at Sting Accelerate, told The Local at the time that it had not actively sought out more women.

“We don't have any quotas or so, we simply try to select the best companies (…) it is usually about two out of eight that have women co-founders,” he said.

“But I think that you could argue that we are pretty conscious when it comes to finding startups where at least one of the co-founders is a woman. We do that in a range of ways from sponsoring different events to word-of-mouth (…) getting into the right communities and events to tell women we are here to help.”

What to do if you can't meet Tuesday's Swedish tax declaration deadline

When exactly is the Swedish tax deadline and what help can I have to meet it?

The deadline falls on the stroke of midnight on Tuesday May 2nd, so you still have a few hours to get your declaration together.

Sweden may have relatively high taxes, but the Swedish Tax Agency seeks to make paying them as easy as possible.

If you have any questions, it is well worth ringing the helpline on 0771-567 567.

Unlike the helplines of the tax offices in most other countries, the helpline is well-staffed with informed people who go out of their way to help you.

The agency also has a good quide in English on how to file your return.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

If you fail to submit your declaration by midnight, you are at risk of having to pay a fee of 1,250 kronor, but this won’t necessarily happen. There is an element of discretion, and if you filed your return at 0.15am on May 3rd, you may well be let off.

In any case, before the charge is taken out of your tax account or skattekonto, you will first receive a note informing you of possible impending late charge, which you can then appeal.

So if you fell ill on May 2nd, or the internet broke down at your apartment at 11.55pm, you can inform them when you receive this note and you may be able to avoid a fine.

If in a further three months (August 2nd), you still haven’t submitted your tax declaration, you risk a second 1,250 kronor fine. Finally, after five months (October 2nd), you risk a third fine of 1,250 kronor.

How to get an extension if you are self-employed

You can extend the deadline until May 16th by logging into your page on the Tax Agency’s website or calling them on 0771 567 567 (or +46 8 564 851 60 from outside Sweden).

To find the extension form, go to the Mina Sidor page on your Tax Agency account, press the Skatter och Deklarationer link near the bottom, and then press the Anstånd med inkomstdeklarationen link and filling in the form.

Jan Janowski, a declaration coordinator at the agency, said that the agency prefers for people to do this than to knowingly submit an incomplete or inaccurate declaration.

“We want people to live their declaration in as complete a form as possible, but if you are still waiting for some supporting documents we would like people to apply for an extension.”

If you have an accountant, they can apply for all of their clients’ income declarations to be delayed until June 15th in a measure called byråanstånd, intended to help them with the last minute rush to declare.

This, however, has to be done for all of their clients and isn’t something they can do for you just because you are late.

Is it better to file an incomplete declaration than a late one?

If you feel unable to file your declaration even on May 16th, what’s holding you back is likely to be something like declaring capital gains tax on share or property sales, or confusion over calculating one of Sweden’s many tax deductions, such as the ROT or RUT deductions for cleaning or home maintenance.

If you are employed, the most important element of your tax declaration – your income from your job – will already be filled in on the paper or online form.

Declaring your main income from employment is just a question of checking that the details Skatteverket already has are correct and submitting a declaration either using Skatteverket’s app, or by sending a text message including your personal identity number and signature code to 71144 from within Sweden, or by calling 020 567 100 and following the instructions.

If you are still wading through spreadsheets of share sales, but have no issues with the Tax Agency’s record of your income from employment, you can make the declaration but inform the agency that you may have other capital gains or other income to declare later on.

If you do this, it’s good to be as transparent as possible with the agency about what information you are waiting for when you make your declaration.

To do this, find the andra information, or “other information” section in the declaration, and write down, in either English or Swedish, what information you are waiting for.

You could write, for instance: “I sold an apartment in Florida in 2022 but have yet to receive details of the proceeds and am waiting for my accountants in the US to calculate the capital gains.”

If you do this, you are much less likely to be fined if the Tax Agency later discovers any undeclared gains.

How long do you have to make changes to your tax declaration?

Until the Tax Agency makes a tax decision, normally in June, you can resubmit your tax declaration using the same form on the website you used to declare it the first time, and the agency will use the most up-to-date declaration when calculating your taxes.

Even after it has made a tax decision for an income year, the agency is liberal about any voluntary changes made in future.

Once a declaration has been made, you can still request changes to the final tax decision based on new information or corrections you have made for up to five years.

For the first 12 months after the end of the taxation year (IE, until January 2024), the tax agency will never levy a so-called tax surcharge (skattetilläg), even if one of its officers discovers that someone has failed to declare, or falsely declared, some earnings or income in your return.

After the first 12 months, if you bring undeclared income or falsely claimed tax breaks voluntarily to the tax agency’s attention before the agency discovers it, you are also likely to avoid a surcharge.

What happens if the agency catches you not declaring income or falsely claiming rebates?

If you are caught evading taxes or make a mistake, the penalty is set quite high. You have to pay the tax you should have paid, plus a 40 percent surcharge.

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