Foreign citizens whose work include specialist tasks or who receive a monthly salary over a certain level may be eligible for tax relief on income earned in Sweden. The tax relief means that only 75 per cent of the income is taxed. Applications for tax relief are considered by the Taxation of Research Workers Board.
Conditions
Certain basic conditions must be met for the Taxation of Research Workers Board to examine whether an employee is eligible for tax relief.
- The employee may not be a Swedish citizen.
- The employee may not have been a resident of Sweden or had their “habitual place of abode” (as a rule at least six months) in Sweden at any time during the last five calendar years prior to the year when they start working in Sweden.
- At the time of application, the intention must be for the employee to stay in Sweden for no longer than seven years.
The application must have been submitted to the Taxation of Research Workers Board no later than three months after the date the employee began working in Sweden.
Two application categories
There are two application categories for tax relief.
In the first category, the application is based on the employee’s remuneration level. What is examined is only whether the contracted remuneration for the work in Sweden reaches a certain specified level each month. Here, duties, qualifications and similar have no bearing on the employee’s eligibility for tax relief.
If the employee’s remuneration does not, however, reach the specified level, the employee must in the eyes of the law be an “expert”, “researcher” or “other key person” to be eligible for tax relief. What is considered here is, among other things, the expertise required for the role or the significance to the organisation of the work involved, as well as the employee’s qualifications and experience.
Guidance on the assessment of eligibility for researcher’s tax relief
To be considered a “researcher”, the employee must have a role that involves specialist research or development duties of such a specialisation or at such a level of expertise that there are considerable difficulties recruiting staff meeting those requirements within Sweden.
Specialist research duties here refer to autonomous research at a certain level. It normally means that the employee must have developed their research competence for another 1–2 years following the completion of their PhD.
Application
The application is made by the employee or the employer (school) no later than three months after the employee has started working in Sweden.
For an application for tax relief for researchers, the school is required to supply a detailed description of the duties associated with the position, and of the difficulties in recruiting individuals within Sweden who possess the relevant competence or specialisation.
A detailed description of the attachments to be submitted can be found on the Taxation of Research Workers Board’s website.
Learn more at:
https://forskarskattenamnden.se/andra-sprak/taxation-of-research-workers-board
If you have any questions, contact Human Resources.