Preface
1 Exchanges create relations
Defining taxation
Reciprocity
Why Sweden?
Understanding the relation between society and tax
Fieldwork: Ethnography of Swedes' views on taxation
Research on why we pay tax
Anthropology of economic exchanges and reciprocity
Reciprocity proliferating
To see tax as a gift - or?
Conclusion
Literature
2 Taxpayers' relation to their state
Taxes in terms of reciprocity cannot be measured
The Agency's view on why taxpayers comply
Fairness in tax collection
Who is the taxpayer?
A contemporary view of taxpayers at the Agency
Getting value for 'tax' money
Unfairly treated by society
Balancing a fair deal with the state
Conclusion
Literature
3. Taxpayer to taxpayer relation
The Agency's view
Barter
Taxpayer views on barter
Business and private life
An example: Horse trotting
Business and private life continued
Informalizing the formal
Formalizing the informal: Share economy
Conclusion
Literature
4. Tensions between paying and receiving
Being Magister
Progressive marginal tax
Pillars of society
Balance artists
Contributive and distributive balancing
Not paying for those who do not pay
A fair society
Conclusion
Literature
5. Making tax compliant
Taxation is a total social phenomenon
Balance outstanding
Fair share - all need to contribute
Literature
About the Author: Lotta Björklund Larsen is Research Fellow at Linköping University, Sweden. She is an economic anthropologist that finds taxation a fascinating practice as it goes right to the heart of the relations between individuals' values, governmental regulations and institutional impact. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Irvine and The City University of New York, USA. Prior to academic work, Björklund Larsen worked in the financial software industry.
