YouTuber who was banned for ‘sexualizing minors’ found guilty of tax fraud

Swedish YouTuber Pontus Rasmusson has been found guilty of tax fraud in his home country, after failing to disclose income and employee payroll fees. It comes just two months after his channel was removed following content that allegedly sexualized minors.

In March 2023, YouTube shut down Rasmusson’s main account with immediate effect, according to the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. It comes after the internet personality was accused of sexualizing minors while also lying about his age to make himself appear younger.

“After review, we have shut down Pontus Rasmusson’s channel for violating our child safety policy, which prohibits content that sexualizes minors,” said Andrea Lewis Åkerman, communications for Google in Sweden, told SvD.

Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency, has now also revealed that Rasmusson failed to disclose an income of 2.4 million crowns ($223,376) between 2018–2021, Aftonbladet reports. They also say that a “substantial part” has been left out of the accounting, and requires a tax surcharge for the deficiencies, in addition to $25,000 in VAT and employer’s fees.

The exact sum of how much Rasmusson will have to pay has not been disclosed.

Pontus Rasmusson blames tax fraud on his age

In response to the tax agency’s decision, Rasmusson, 25, argued that the tax agency’s decision was “too heavy of a tax burden with regard to the information provided”, Aftonbladet reported. He also added that it was never his intention to not declare the full amount of money.

One of the reasons for his mistake, Rasmusson argued, was his young age. He added that he did not know enough about the tax rules and laws and that the fraud had been accidental.

He also mentioned that the hate comments and threats he had to deal with from viewers on a daily basis affected his mental health, resulting in him forgetting to do parts of the admin work of his company.