Each year, individuals working in Sweden must review, approve and submit their tax declaration sent to them by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).
For international consultants who are new in Sweden, the process may feel unfamiliar at first. Fortunately, the system is designed to be straightforward: most information is already pre-filled by the tax authority, and in most cases you simply need to review and approve the declaration.
This step-by-step guide explains the timeline, what to do to approve your declaration, and how to ensure that any tax refund you are eligible for is transferred to your bank account smoothly.
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STEP 1. RECEIVE YOUR TAX DECLARATION (INKOMSTDEKLARATION)
Every spring Skatteverket sends you letter with a preliminary tax summary, also known as a tax declaration, showing your income from the previous year, taxes already paid, and deductions reported by your employer. This summary usually arrives between early-March and mid-April. If you have not received it by the 15th of April, you should contact Skatteverket, which can be done via several channels. You can either make a phone call, make an inquiry from your personal account at Skatteverket (where you can login using your Swedish Bank ID), or by visiting one of their nearest service centers in person.
Eccoci consultants got it all covered – all you need to do is to contact your onboarding manager, and we will make a direct inquiry for you at Skatteverket to follow-up on the status of your tax declaration.
Note: Even though the most common way to receive your declaration is by post, it can also be visible in My Pages (Mina sidor) when you login to the Skatteverket client service portal. However, it is sometimes not easy to navigate because most of the information is only available in Swedish.
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STEP 2. APPROVE YOUR TAX DECLARATION
Once you have received and reviewed your tax declaration, the next step is to submit it back to Skatteverket.
In most cases, the information is already correct and you simply confirm it. You have time have until 4 May to approve it, which can be done in several ways:
Logging in with BankID (fastest method). Log in to Skatteverket’s digital service (portal) using your BankID – this takes only a few minutes.
SMS Approval. Some taxpayers receive instructions allowing them to approve via SMS. Their tax declaration letter contains the phone number to send the SMS to, with a unique personal approval code. You simply send the code as instructed.
Phone Approval. You can call the automated service of Skatteverket and follow the voice instructions. The phone number and the code are included in the declaration letter.
Paper Approval. You can also physically sign the paper declaration and send it by post to the address indicated on the form.
Overall, any contact information you can use to get in touch with Skatteverket should be already included into your declaration and is usually presented on the third page, be it the phone number to ring, to text (with a code), or the postal address to mail it to.
Note: The white pages are for your information, whereas the actual tax declaration is on the yellow pages.
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STEP 3. RECEIVE CONFIRMATION FROM THE TAX AGENCY
After submitting your declaration, Skatteverket processes the information. You will typically receive confirmation during the first half of June. It may arrive as a digital message if you use digital mailbox services, a letter by post, or a notification in the Skatteverket online portal, showing your final tax calculation.
Similarly, if for any reason you did not receive a formal confirmation with the finalized version of your declaration (or the original one, if you did not make any changes), you need to reach out to Skatteverket by any of the means listed above.
For Eccoci consultants, assistance is available at this stage as well, you only need to make sure not to miss the deadlines and contact us as soon as you notice the confirmation note from Skatteverket to be still missing.
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STEP 4. RECEIVE YOUR TAX REFUND
If you paid more tax than required, you will receive a tax refund, which is usually issued during the third week of June. The money is transferred to your tax account at Skatteverket.
What is a tax account?
In Sweden, every taxpayer has a tax account managed by Skatteverket. Think of it as a temporary holding account for tax payments and refunds. If a bank account is registered, the refund is automatically transferred. If no account is registered, the money remains in your tax account until you provide banking details.
Note: The fact that you already have a Swedish bank account does not mean it will be automatically identified and used by the tax authorities for transferring the funds.
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HOW TO REGISTER A BANK ACCOUNT AT SKATTEVERKET FOR YOUR TAX REFUND
To receive your refund, you must register your bank account with Skatteverket.
Option 1. Register a Swedish bank account online. If you have a Swedish bank account and BankID, you can register it online, and the account will be linked to your tax profile.
Option 2. Register a Swedish bank account without Bank ID. If you have a Swedish account but do not yet have BankID, you can:
Option 3. Register a foreign bank account. If you want the refund transferred to a foreign bank account, you must send a notification asking Skatteverket to register your foreign bank account for receiving your tax refund (free-written on a piece of paper, no specific form) that should include:
You must also attach a bank certificate (inquired from your bank) confirming that you own the foreign account.
Place both documents in an envelope and post them to:
Swedish Tax Agency
205 30 Malmö
Sweden
Note: If it is your first time to receive a tax refund in Sweden and you haven’t had a chance to connect a bank account to your Skatteverket profile just yet (i.e. your user account when you login), Skatteverket will keep your funds on a temporary tax account until the real bank account is connected.
Only after it is done, and Skatteverket can access the information about your bank account received from you directly – digitally, by mail, or via in-person visit – they will be able to transfer your tax refund to you. A phone call or an SMS will not suffice for this purpose due to GDPR reasons.
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IMPORTANT DATES – TIMELINE SUMMARY
Once again, be sure not to miss important dates:
Your taxes have been prepared and submitted by the 21st of January.
The tax agency will send out a summary for you with the taxes that Eccoci have submitted by the 15th of April.
Once you receive that, you have time to approve those taxes until the 4th of May.
Following that, you will receive a confirmation from the tax agency by the 2nd week of June.
Your tax refund, if any, will arrive in your tax account at the tax agency by the 3rd third week of June.
For Eccoci consultants, we can take care of your tax declaration, managing the process from A to Z (i.e. from you receiving the declaration to you getting the tax refund to your account), which is offered as an additional service.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What happens of I forget to approve my tax declaration?
If you do not approve your declaration before the deadline, Skatteverket may process it automatically based on the available information. However, you may risk delayed refunds or corrections later. The worst-case scenario, when you completely forgot, neglected, or significantly delayed the submission, may result in fines.
Do I need to submit taxes myself?
Usually not. In Sweden, employers and financial institutions report information directly to the tax authority. At Eccoci, we definitely do that for our consultants. You only need to submit the declaration when you receive it and connect your bank account. However, additional information from you might be needed if something on your declaration is missing or incorrect.
What if I have a coordination number instead of a personal number?
The tax declaration process is the same for everyone who works and pays taxes in Sweden. Individuals with a coordination number still receive a declaration and can approve it using the same methods.
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Sources and Further Reading
Swedish Tax Agency – Official website
https://www.skatteverket.se
BankID – Digital identification system used in Sweden
https://www.bankid.com
European Commission – Taxation in EU Member States
https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
