How the Swedish Tax System Works: Skatteverket, Tax Liability, and A-, F- and SINK Tax

Sweden collects income tax in two steps. During the year, tax is paid in advance as preliminärskatt, meaning preliminary tax. After the year, the final amount is settled through the annual deklaration, the income tax return. One authority, Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency), runs both steps. Which rules apply to you depends on your skattskyldighet, your tax liability, and that depends on where you live and how long you stay.

Who this article is for

This article is for anyone who earns money in Sweden: employees, pensioners, people arriving to work, people about to leave, and sole traders. It gives the map. The step-by-step guides sit behind it, and each section below names the one that applies.

It is not for visitors who earn nothing in Sweden. If you are planning a trip, start with planning a trip to Sweden.

Prerequisites differ by step, so they are stated where each step starts. Three recur: a legal right to work in Sweden, an identity check at a Skatteverket servicekontor, a service office, if you have no personnummer or samordningsnummer, and an email address for the online forms. A personnummer is the Swedish identity number you receive when you are folkbokförd. A samordningsnummer is the substitute identity number for people who are not folkbokförda.

Skatteverket collects the tax; politicians set it

Skatteverket is the Swedish Tax Agency. Its main tasks are to collect taxes, run folkbokföring, the population register, keep the marriage register, assess property values, register estate inventories, and act as creditor to the state. It also issues ID cards to people who are folkbokförda and investigates tax crimes (Skatteverket, "Det här gör Skatteverket", checked 7 October 2026).

The split of roles matters. Politicians in the Riksdag, the kommuner and the regioner decide which taxes Sweden has and how large they are. Skatteverket collects them. It reports to the government but is an independent authority, so the government cannot influence an individual's tax case.

Skatteverket also owns the register that your tax depends on. Folkbokföring is where Skatteverket records that you live in Sweden, and it feeds directly into which tax table you get, as shown below.

Tax liability: obegränsad or begränsad skattskyldighet

Everything in Swedish income tax starts from one question: are you obegränsat skattskyldig or begränsat skattskyldig? Obegränsad skattskyldighet means unlimited tax liability. You pay Swedish tax on all income, whether it comes from Sweden or another country. Begränsad skattskyldighet means limited tax liability. You pay Swedish tax only on certain income.

The rule is in the inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229), the Income Tax Act, 3 kap. 3 §. You are obegränsat skattskyldig if you are bosatt in Sweden, if you stadigvarande vistas (stay permanently) in Sweden, or if you have väsentlig anknytning (an essential connection) to Sweden after having lived here. Skatteverket reads the three conditions this way (checked 7 October 2026):

The six-month figure is Skatteverket's reading of "stadigvarande vistas". Neither the inkomstskattelagen nor the SINK law states a number of months. Begränsat skattskyldiga are everyone who is not obegränsat skattskyldig. For the stay test, only nights spent in Sweden count as time in Sweden, and the test looks at how long you stay, not how long the job lasts. A treaty between Sweden and another country can still change how a given income is taxed.

Municipal and state income tax

Income tax on earnings has two layers. Skatteverket states that income tax goes mainly to the kommuner and regioner, and also to the state. The kommunalskatt, the municipal tax, differs between kommuner. For 2026 the average kommunal rate is 32,38 percent (Skatteverket, "Belopp och procent inkomstår 2026").

The statlig inkomstskatt, the state income tax, applies only above a threshold called the skiktgräns. For 2026 the skiktgräns is 643 000 kronor of beskattningsbar förvärvsinkomst, which is earned income after the grundavdrag, a basic allowance explained below. There is no state income tax up to that amount. On the part above it, state income tax is 20 percent.

The grundavdrag is a basic allowance that everyone receives automatically. Its size varies with your income. Below the skiktgräns, only kommunalskatt applies to your earned income.

Preliminärskatt and the skattetabell

Skatteverket's system is built on paying tax in the same year you earn the income. You cannot choose to pay later. If you are an employee, your employer deducts the tax from your pay. If you are a pensioner, the pension payer does it. The tax that reaches Skatteverket this way is called A-skatt.

The employer deducts the amount from a skattetabell, a tax table. Skatteverket publishes tables numbered 29 to 42 for 2026. Which table applies to you depends on where you were folkbokförd on 1 November of the year before the income year. The tables already include kommunal and state income tax, the allmän pensionsavgift (general pension fee), the begravningsavgift (burial fee), church fees where relevant, the public service fee, and credits such as the jobbskatteavdrag (earned-income tax credit) and the grundavdrag.

Your A-skattsedel, the decision on preliminary A-skatt, names your table. In most cases the payer gets this electronically from Skatteverket, and a paper decision is normally sent only if you ask. Two adjustments are worth knowing. Pay that is a sidoinkomst, a side income for the recipient, is taxed with a flat 30 percent deduction. With several payers, you can apply for jämkning, an adjustment decision, to avoid paying too little.

For the first paycheck on a Swedish payroll, see your skattsedel before your first paycheck.

A-skatt, F-skatt, FA-skatt and SINK as one map

The labels describe who pays the preliminary tax and how. Skatteverket's rule of thumb is that A-skatt is automatic for employees and pensioners, F-skatt belongs to people running a business, and FA-skatt is the combination.

SINK, särskild inkomstskatt för utomlands bosatta, means special income tax for people living abroad. It differs in kind from the three labels above. It is a flat rate, not a table, and a person with a SINK decision does not file an income return. For income paid in 2026 the rate is 22,5 percent, down from 25 percent, and from 1 January 2027 it is 20 percent (lag (1991:586) om särskild inkomstskatt för utomlands bosatta, the SINK law, 7 §). A begränsat skattskyldig person may instead ask to be taxed under the inkomstskattelagen (SINK law, 4 §), which means a preliminary A-skatt decision and a deklaration.

A related label, SA-skatt (särskild A-skatt), can be decided for people who are not approved for F-skatt, when it makes the preliminary tax match the final tax better.

The F-skatt label also matters to whoever pays you. A client does not withhold tax on payments to a contractor with F-skatt. For the registration steps, see F-skatt registration for sole traders. Moms, the Swedish VAT, is a separate tax that Skatteverket also runs. For foreign-owned businesses, see VAT registration for foreign-owned businesses.

Withholding without a tax decision: 110 percent of the table deduction

Several rates circulate for what an employer withholds when there is no tax decision, including a flat 30 percent. Skatteverket's employer page gives one answer. The employer makes a förhöjt skatteavdrag, an increased deduction. It follows the table for the kommunalskatt where the employer's business is located and adds a further 10 percent to the table deduction. The increased deduction equals 110 percent of the table deduction.

Skatteverket's own example uses a gross salary of 28 000 kronor and table 32. The table deduction is 5 604 kronor, and 110 percent of that is 6 164 kronor. The employee receives 21 836 kronor.

A flat 30 percent exists in the rules, but for other cases. It applies to a sidoinkomst, as above, and the Skatteverket employer page lists it as the rule where pay is not a main income. It is not the rule for an employee whose decision has not yet arrived.

You may start work before the decision arrives, if you have a legal right to work. Skatteverket states that nothing on its side prevents pay from being paid out before the decision. If the decision is a SINK decision and arrives late, the payer will already have withheld preliminary tax. If that exceeds the SINK tax, you can ask for the difference back.

SINK and folkbokföring: the six-month test decides

A common question is whether someone waiting for folkbokföring can use SINK, or whether SINK is only for non-residents staying six months or less. Skatteverket's answer has two parts.

First, the test is the length of stay, not the status of your folkbokföring case. Skatteverket's SINK page says you can apply for SINK if you will stay in Sweden less than six months. A stay of exactly six months is already a stadigvarande vistelse in Skatteverket's reading, so SINK is for stays under six months, not six months or less.

Second, being folkbokförd is the other side of the same question. Someone who is bosatt in Sweden is obegränsat skattskyldig and is taxed under the inkomstskattelagen, so SINK does not apply.

Someone who is not yet folkbokförd, and has either a personnummer or a samordningsnummer, is judged by the stay test. If the stay is six months or longer, Skatteverket says to submit an anmälan om preliminär A-skatt, a notification of preliminary A-skatt, instead of using SINK. If the stay is shorter, SINK is available. The same applies if you already hold a SINK decision: if you will now be in Sweden six months or longer, you submit the A-skatt notification instead.

The practical result for someone whose folkbokföring is pending: count how long you will actually stay. Under six months: SINK. Six months or longer: preliminary A-skatt until folkbokföring goes through. Once you are folkbokförd, you no longer need to submit the notification.

One exception comes before SINK. If you are in Sweden to work for a foreign employer that has no fast driftställe, a permanent establishment, in Sweden, the 183-day rule in the SINK law can mean that the pay is not taxed in Sweden at all. The rule does not cover people hired out as labour for temporary work in Sweden (Skatteverket, SINK page).

For the application itself, see SINK tax in Sweden.

Deklaration: the annual settlement

The deklaration is the annual income tax return. You declare the income of one year in the following year. On that basis Skatteverket decides your final tax and sends a slutskattebesked, a final tax notice, showing how well the final tax matched the preliminary tax. Tax still due after the decision is called kvarskatt. Tax you get back is paid out automatically as skatteåterbäring, a refund, to a bank account you have registered.

Each year Skatteverket publishes the dates. For income year 2025, declared in 2026, they were:

• Declaring is possible from 17 March for people with an e-legitimation, an electronic ID.
• The last day to declare without anstånd, an extension, is 4 May. With anstånd it is 1 June.
• Kvarskatt is due about 90 days after the decision. The due date is on the notice.

Check Skatteverket's date page for the dates that apply to the next declaration. Those dates change each year.

Not everyone files one. A person taxed under SINK does not file an income return once a SINK decision applies. A begränsat skattskyldig person who chose the inkomstskattelagen files one in the year after the pay was paid out.

If you disagree with a decision, you can ask for an omprövning, a reconsideration. Skatteverket states that a request to change a SINK decision or an inkomstskattelagen decision can be made up to and including the sixth year after the end of the tax year. The route is covered in appealing a Skatteverket decision.

Newcomer: what to do, by length of stay

Skatteverket's starting rule is: "Vanligtvis ska du betala skatt i det land du arbetar." That means you usually pay tax in the country where you work. For a newcomer, one of three paths applies, and the length of stay picks it.

1. Staying a year or longer. Report your move to Sweden. If the conditions for folkbokföring are met, you become folkbokförd and receive a personnummer, which replaces any samordningsnummer. A folkbokförd person does not need to submit an anmälan om preliminär A-skatt. See the one-year personnummer test.
2. Staying six months or longer without being folkbokförd. Submit an anmälan om preliminär A-skatt, and repeat it every calendar year while you are not folkbokförd. Your employer does not file it for you. You are taxed under the inkomstskattelagen and file a deklaration the following year.
3. Staying under six months. You or your employer applies for SINK, and a new application is needed for each calendar year, employer and employment period. If a foreign employer with no fast driftställe in Sweden pays you, check the 183-day rule first, as described above.

Paths 2 and 3 share two prerequisites. You need a legal right to work, and if you have no personnummer or samordningsnummer, you need a samordningsnummer, for which you book a visit to a servicekontor so Skatteverket can check your identity. If you already have a personnummer but are not folkbokförd, you still submit the notification or application. You can submit the tax notification or SINK application during that same visit.

For the identity numbers themselves, see what the personnummer is. If you run your own business, F-skatt applies on top, as covered above.

Leaver: report the move, and check your ties

If you plan to live abroad for a year or more, you report it to Skatteverket, online or on form SKV 7665. The same applies if a shorter plan later grows to a year or more.

Reporting the move does not by itself end your Swedish tax liability. Skatteverket states that tax law and folkbokföring are two separate rule sets with their own idea of residence, so you can owe Swedish tax even after you are no longer folkbokförd. The test is väsentlig anknytning.

If you are a Swedish citizen, or have lived in Sweden at least ten years, you must show yourself that you no longer have a väsentlig anknytning. This applies for five years from the day you left (inkomstskattelagen 3 kap. 7 §). If neither applies to you, the same test still applies, but Skatteverket must show that the connection remains rather than you showing that it is gone (inkomstskattelagen 3 kap. 3 § and 7 §). Skatteverket looks at citizenship, a home in Sweden kept for year-round use, family in Sweden, business activity and holdings in Sweden, and property, among other things. After five years you are begränsat skattskyldig unless Skatteverket finds that the connection remains.

If you are still obegränsat skattskyldig, you declare all income in the Swedish return, whatever its source. Skatteverket adds that you usually pay tax on all income in the country where you have your hemvist under a tax treaty, where you are resident for treaty purposes.

Quick answers on personnummer, SINK and starting work

A personnummer is not required for correct tax

Skatteverket's notification and SINK forms accept a samordningsnummer, and its own wording is that a decision on preliminary A-skatt or SINK is what lets the employer withhold the right amount. The type of number is not the test.

SINK means no deklaration

Skatteverket states that once you have a decision to pay SINK on the income, you do not need to file an income return.

Starting work before the tax decision arrives

You can, if you have a legal right to work. The employer withholds 110 percent of the table deduction until the decision arrives, as described above.

Count your stay, then pick the label

The system has one authority, one split between unlimited and limited liability, and a small set of labels. Count how long you will stay, check whether you run a business, and the right label follows. Staying six months or longer puts you under the inkomstskattelagen with preliminary A-skatt. Staying under six months points to SINK, unless the 183-day rule takes pay from a foreign employer out of Swedish tax. Running a business adds F-skatt. For everything that comes after the first paycheck, the Tax hub lists the step-by-step guides.