Minister affair at the announcement of the Reinfeldt cabinet

The minister affair at the announcement of the Reinfeldt cabinet in Sweden is a political scandal which started on October 7, 2006 when the Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt, which had been announced on October 6, immediately became affected by media allegations on past errors on the part of several cabinet ministers, in particular Maria Borelius, Cecilia Stegö Chilò and Tobias Billström. The affair centred around the use of domestic workers (nannies and maids) without paying employment (payroll) tax, employer's contribution (), unpaid TV licences and other issues. On October 14, 2006 Maria Borelius resigned after eight days in office, and on October 16, 2006 Cecilia Stegö Chilò resigned after ten days in office. Criminal charges have been filed against Borelius, Billström and Stegö Chilò. The affair has also been widely reported by the international press, with the British Financial Times dubbing it "Nannygate".

Background

The affair concerns several key pieces of Swedish law, politics and society:

• Domestic help:
• A person who hires someone do work for them is required to report this to the tax authorities and pay a proportion of the wages to the tax authorities (the so-called "employment (payroll) tax, employer's contribution", "Arbetsgivaravgifter" in Swedish). For employees born after 1940 this tax amounted to 32.28% of......
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