“In 2017, Sweden enacted a 98% tax cut for data centers, looking to attract businesses. Four years later, the industry hasn’t created the jobs the country was hoping for, and the macroeconomic environment has changed, said the budget report.””It is unclear whether Sweden’s new taxes were intended towards miners or the entire data center industry. The tax hike was proposed by the Swedish Ministry of Finance, which was also pushing for a ban on bitcoin mining in the European Union last year.””The tax will increase from SEK 0.006 ($0.0006) to SEK 0.36 ($0.035) per kilowatt hour (kWh) starting July of this year.”Sweden is currently home to about 150 megawatts (MW) of mining.”Microsoft (MSFT), which also operates data centers in the region, has protested the measure’s abruptness, particularly given that the government had commissioned a report on the energy impact of data centers that wasn’t finished at the time of the tax hike decision.”
