Sweden taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents on Sweden-source income only. Sweden operates a largely pre-filled administrative assessment system: Skatteverket pre-populates most individual returns using third-party-reported data and issues a tax assessment (slutlig skatt) determining the final liability, which the taxpayer reviews and can amend.
The Swedish tax year is the calendar year. The standard individual filing deadline is 2 May of the following year.
Sweden's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 20.6%.
The headline personal income tax (PIT) rate is residents 20% plus municipal; non-residents 22.5%.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 25%.
An individual is a Swedish tax resident if their principal home is in Sweden, if present in Sweden continuously for at least six months, or if they have an "essential connection" (vasentlig anknytning) to Sweden - such as a permanent home, immediate family, or a Swedish company board role - and were previously resident there. Swedish citizens and foreign nationals who lived in Sweden for at least ten consecutive years are presumed resident until they prove all significant ties are severed; five years after departure, the burden of proof shifts to the tax authority to show ties still exist. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents face a flat 25% rate on Swedish-source employment income.
A non-Swedish entity has a Swedish permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Sweden on the entity's behalf, following the OECD Model Treaty definition as applied under Swedish domestic law and any applicable tax treaty.
A Swedish resident holding, directly or indirectly, at least 25% of the capital or voting rights in a foreign entity is subject to CFC taxation if that entity is "low-taxed" - defined as facing an effective rate below 55% of the Swedish corporate rate (roughly 11.4%, given the current 20.6% headline rate). Where triggered, the shareholder is taxed annually on their proportional share of the entity's income, computed under Swedish tax rules, regardless of distribution. Entities resident in an approved "white list" jurisdiction, or within the EEA, are generally excluded from the regime.
Sweden has no formal thin capitalization rule. Since January 1, 2019 (implementing EU ATAD), net interest expense on both internal and external loans is deductible only up to 30% of tax-EBITDA, with a safe-harbor de minimis exemption for groups with net interest expense under SEK 5 million. Disallowed interest carries forward up to six years, though a change of control generally extinguishes the carryforward (except within the same group). A separate, targeted rule denies deduction on intra-group loans unless the beneficial owner of the interest income is taxed at 10% or more (or resides in a jurisdiction with an applicable tax treaty), and even then, deduction can still be denied if the loan's principal purpose is to secure a Swedish group tax benefit.
Sweden does not use an elective check-the-box classification system; entity classification generally follows the entity's actual legal characteristics. Sweden has implemented ATAD2-aligned anti-hybrid rules denying deductions for payments producing a hybrid mismatch outcome.
No foreign bank account or foreign financial asset reporting regime exists requiring residents to separately disclose foreign accounts; foreign income is reported through the standard annual tax return.
Sweden operates a participation exemption (naringsbetingade andelar) for qualifying dividends and capital gains on business-related shares: a Swedish company holding unlisted shares (or listed shares meeting a minimum 10% voting-rights threshold held for a continuous minimum 1-year period) is generally exempt from Swedish corporate tax on dividends and capital gains from that shareholding.
Sweden has a real foreign tax credit regime available to both individuals and companies for foreign tax paid on foreign-source income also taxed in Sweden, capped at the Swedish tax otherwise due on that income.
Sweden has approximately 85 double tax treaties in force, per TaxAtlas (dated January 2026), generally following the OECD Model Tax Convention; a separate Nordic Tax Convention provides special provisions among the Nordic countries. The authoritative, current list is maintained by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).