Website down as Swedish tax season gets under way
Many readers may have found that the Swedish Tax Agency's site was down this morning if you tried to log in to file your tax declaration form on Tuesday.
According to the Tax Agency themselves, or Skatteverket as they are called in Swedish, it's not a DDOS attack or any other kind of cyber attack – just the site buckling under the pressure of everyone wanting to check how much money they're likely to get back on their taxes. It has been possible to view your declaration for a few days, but today is the first day on which it is possible to officially submit it.
"I haven't heard anything other than that everyone is trying to log in at the same time and declare," Skatteverket press officer Jany Plevnik told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
We don't know when the website will work properly again (it looked fine when The Local tried to access it at 7.30am, half an hour after it opened), but if you find these kinds of tech hiccups too... taxing (sorry)... you may want to give it a little bit of time before you log in. If you file your tax declaration by March 31st, you will get any rebate you're owed back by April 7th-10th.
Swedish vocabulary: to submit – att lämna in / att skicka in
High risk of grass fires in Sweden
There's a high risk of grass fires in large parts of Sweden on Tuesday, according to weather agency SMHI.
The warning applies to most of Götaland, eastern Svealand and south-eastern Norrland, between 11am and 5pm on Tuesday.
If you think early spring is a strange time for grass fires, when it's still rather cold in most of Sweden, think again, because it's actually pretty common. When the snow melts, it exposes the grass from last year which is old and dry and can quickly ignite if there's a spark from a campfire or machinery.
"Be very careful when lighting fires or operating heavy machinery outside," advises SMHI.
Swedish vocabulary: a grass fire – en gräsbrand
Swedish MP brings citizenship transitional rules to parliament
A Swedish member of parliament has put a question to Migration Minister Johan Forssell in parliament, following The Local's interview with Johanna Nylander, acting director of the Swedish Games Industry, in which she warned that pushing through citizenship reforms this summer without transitional rules for the around 100,000 people already in the queue could harm Sweden's ability to attract and retain international talent.
In the written query, MP Lars Mejern Larsson of the Social Democrats explains that "representatives of the game industry have expressed concern that changes to migration and citizenship rules, especially without transitional rules, create uncertainty for people already working in Sweden or waiting for a decision on their case. In a global and knowledge-intensive industry, predictability in the regulations could be decisive when it comes to where businesses choose to establish themselves and where talents choose to work".
He asks Forssell to clarify how he intends to "ensure that changes to the migration and citizenship rules do not harm the supply of talent in international cultural and creative industries such as the Swedish gaming industry".
Forssell has until March 25th to reply to the query.
The practical impact of such a written query shouldn't be overestimated, but it does bring the issue of the lack of transitional rules – which is gaining increasing traction on a grassroots level, but hasn't been given much attention in national politics so far – to parliament.
Swedish vocabulary: a written query – en skriftlig fråga
Iranian fire festival to go ahead in Malmö despite Gothenburg and Stockholm cancellations
Fire festivals which were supposed to mark the Persian new year have been cancelled in both Gothenburg and Stockholm, reports public broadcaster SVT.
The festivals, Chaharshanbeh Suri, usually attract thousands of visitors across Sweden.
The decision to cancel comes in light of the threat posed to Iranians in exile following US and Israeli attacks on Iran, which the Swedish intelligence agency, Säpo, has warned about.
But in Malmö people will still come together to celebrate, reports regional newspaper Sydsvenskan.
"Malmö is a bit cocky. We have organised Eurovision in difficult circumstances. So we feel secure with our close cooperation with civil society and the police authority," Andy Roberts from Malmö City Council told Sydsvenskan.
Swedish vocabulary: to cancel – att ställa in
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