About Tax Relief
A decision of The Taxation of Research Workers Board can enable The Swedish Tax Agency to apply tax relief when an employee is considered to be an "expert", a "researcher" or "other key person" within the meaning of the law.
The employee needs to have competencies that would entail difficulties in recruiting within Sweden. Normally, one or two years of experience as postdoc is sufficient to be granted tax relief.
An employee with a monthly remuneration above a certain level is also eligible for relief. In that case qualifications or tasks are of no importance.
What is the rate of the tax relief?
A positive decision of The Taxation of Research Workers Board means that 75% of the salary and benefits is taxed at the regular rate, but that the remaining 25% becomes tax-free. Tax relief for foreign employees are found in Chapter 11 Sections 22—23 a of the Swedish Income Tax Act (1999:1229).
The tax relief also means that certain cost reimbursements from the employer are tax-free. This applies to costs such as:
- moving to and from Sweden
- two holiday trips per year to the employee’s home country for themselves and their family members
- children's school fees for compulsory school and upper secondary school
Conditions for tax relief
The employee may not be a Swedish citizen and must not have lived or resided permanently in Sweden at any time during the last five calendar years before the year in which the work began.
The tax relief is applicable for seven years and starts from the time the employee arrived to Sweden, not by the time the employee started working in Sweden.
Apply for tax relief
The application can either be made by the employee or by the employer (the institution). The application must be received by the Taxation of Research Workers Board no later than three months after the employee started working in Sweden.
The application should include:
- Information about the persons background, experience as well as special skills and expertise
- A description of KI
- A detailed description of the tasks that the employment entails and whether there are recruitment difficulties
Specify the time in which the stay in Sweden began and state how long it is expected to last as well as the start of employment.