Tax agency: DNA-test no proof of paternity

The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) does not want to recognise a DNA-test as confirmation of the paternity of a Sierra Leone man currently living with his son in Sundsvall.

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“We can’t recognise a DNA-test because the question isn’t really if the man is the boy’s biological father, but if he is the father of the boy in the eyes of Swedish law,“ Lars Tegenfeldt of the Tax Agency told The Local.

It was in 2006 that the man sent for his son, who had been living with a relative up until then.

In order for the boy to be able to travel the relative helped him acquire a new birth certificate, as his original documents had been lost during a fire during the country's bitter civil war.

However, the birth date in the passport issued was incorrect and after the son had arrived in Sweden, he contacted the Sierra Leone authorities and a new passport was issued.

The new passport was subsequently shown to the local office of the Swedish Migration Board in Sundsvall, along with test results from a DNA test carried out by the National Board of Forensic Medicine (Rättsmedicinalsverket - RMV) indicating that man is the father.

Both the Administrative Court (Förvaltningsrätten) and the Supreme Administrative Court (Kammarrätten) have ruled that the test is sufficient to establish paternity but the Tax Agency remains unsatisfied and has appealed the decision once again.

According to Tegenfeldt the father would need to have his paternity established in a Swedish court.

“What he needs to do if he wants the boy registered as his son is to go to the Social Services committee (Socialnämnden) and have his legal paternity confirmed, then we could register the boy as his son,” Tegenfeldt told The Local.