90-98% tax on bonus payments

"Honourable Speaker. The collapse that occurred here in 2008 left hardly any Icelander untouched. People lost their homes, businesses, jobs, and those who did not lose their jobs faced pay cuts for several years. However, there was one group that did not lose in the collapse but instead made huge profits from it. They were foreign creditors. The government of that time, in the years 2010–2013, handed over the Icelandic banks to these entities with a single stroke of a pen, and that is probably the largest giveaway in the combined history of Iceland. It so happens that now quite a bit of this has been reclaimed through stability contributions that were carried out under the leadership of Framsókn members.

It is, however, somewhat newsworthy that the winding-up boards have now hired some collectors to maximise their profits from the aforementioned giveaway. We do not know what these assets are. Are these businesses that were taken from people? Are these their homes? We do not know what these assets are. But the collectors are supposed to collect this money, and for their work, they are to receive bonuses that are like the annual turnover of small companies.

I would like to mention what can be done to reverse this. I would gladly see the winding-up boards return money to Iceland as it is planned there; I just do not care for them to end up in the hands of four or five people. I would propose that we quickly enact legislation so that a 90–98% tax is imposed on such bonus payments to ensure that these contributions from the winding-up boards coming to Iceland do not go to a group of four to five people but rather to the entire nation.”

Þorsteinn Sæmundsson in parliamentary work, 30 August 2016.