New calculations from the think tank CEPOS show that worker families and unemployed people lose a larger share of their disposable income from the Danish government’s planned tax increase than high-earning director families do.
DR reported on August 19, 2026 that the SSFMR government is facing criticism over the plan. The government presented its platform at Marienborg on June 2, 2026, and it includes freezing a range of tax thresholds for two years.
Because the thresholds and deductions would not follow prices and wages as usual, the freeze works as a tax increase. According to the CEPOS figures cited by DR, a typical worker family, for example a pedagogue or a painter, stands to lose 0.7 percent of its disposable income, while a high-earning director family loses 0.4 percent.
CEPOS chief economist and deputy director Mia Amalie Holstein said director families lose most in kroner. In percentage terms the loss is smaller, because the frozen amounts make up a smaller part of a very high income, she explained to DR.
Danish People’s Party finance spokesperson Anders Vistisen called the plan skewed, saying the government funds a VAT cut by raising taxes on those with least. Venstre deputy leader and finance spokesperson Stephanie Lose said raising income taxes on ordinary worker families is the wrong direction.
Government party SF called the measure a sensible financing proposal. Tax spokesperson Sofie Lippert told DR the revenue will pay for lower VAT on food and the removal of VAT on fruit and vegetables. She said worker-class families gain markedly once both elements are counted together.
Lippert also noted that lower-paid director families lose the largest share, 1.1 percent of disposable income, which CEPOS links to the tapering of the child benefit. Enhedslisten political spokesperson Pelle Dragsted said the package must be judged as a whole, not element by element.
Timing remains unclear
It is not settled whether the tax freeze and the VAT cut on food take effect together. The Ministry of Taxation has determined that the VAT changes cannot begin before 2028 for technical reasons. Lippert said she cannot promise the sequence, but that the government’s ambition is parallel implementation.
Dagens.dk reported on June 5, 2026 that CEPOS estimates a worker family with two children could pay about 4,300 kroner more in income tax per year. The outlet also cited Tax Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt, who described the freeze as part of a broader reform funding cheaper food.
BT has reported that the government wants to freeze all deductions and thresholds on the annual tax statement in nominal kroner for two years. In a press release distributed by Ritzau in June 2026, CEPOS described the measure as a hidden tax increase of around 10 billion kroner.
