The Oresund agreement – Living in Sweden and working in Denmark

A special tax agreement (the Oresund agreement) exists between Denmark and Sweden for people living in Sweden who usually work in Denmark for a private-sector employer.

In order for your total income in Denmark to be taxed according to the Oresund agreement, it is a condition that your work in Denmark makes up at least 50% of your working hours during any given 3-month period.

How to calculate a 3-month period

The condition that your working hours in Denmark must make up at least 50% during a 3-month period means that your number of working days in Denmark must be matched against the total number of working days you had in any given 3-month period.

• When you calculate your working days, you should include any holidays and sick days as working days in Denmark.
• Ordinary weekly days off, such as weekends, public holidays and time off in lieu should not be included when calculating your number of working days.
• If you only work part of the day in Denmark, it still counts as a full working day in Denmark.
• A 3-month period may begin before and finish after the turn of a year.

If at least half of your working days were in Denmark in any given 3-month period, your total salary from your Danish employer should be taxed in Denmark.

Denmark no longer has the right of taxation of your total salary if you, because of work-from-home days in Sweden, for example, have not worked in Denmark for at least half of your working days during a given 3-month period, as laid down in the Oresund agreement.

In that case, the income you have made for the days you have worked from home and other work you have carried out outside Denmark will be taxed in Sweden.

Please note that a 3-month period is not necessarily based on whole calendar months. A 3-month period may start at any given day of the month. As an example, a 3-month period could be from 8 January to 7 April or from 15 January to 14 April.

Other months are calculated as separate calendar months, unless you meet the requirement for at least 50% of your working days to have been in Denmark by calculating another 3-month period instead of separate calendar months. The income you get from your Danish employer for the work you carry out in Denmark is always taxed in Denmark. This applies regardless of whether the working days in question are covered by the Oresund agreement.

Check your tax assessment notice for 2020

If the number of work-from-home days in Sweden is so high that not all of your income is to be taxed in Denmark, you are responsible for calculating and declaring the part of your income to be taxed in Denmark yourself.

Tax assessment notice for 2020

Your employer has declared your total income as it appears in your tax assessment notice for 2020. Your income minus labour market contributions (AM-bidrag) and A-tax (tax withheld at source) appears from box 11. Any part of your income that has been declared as tax-free in Denmark appears from box 16.

Your tax assessment notice must be changed to the effect that any part of your income that is taxed in Denmark is included in box 11. The part of your income that is not taxed in Denmark should not be included in your tax assessment notice and should therefore be deleted from box 16.

You cannot change the numbers in boxes 11 and 16 of your tax assessment notice yourself. Instead, please send us the figures for how much of your income that is taxed in and outside Denmark, respectively.

Read more and see how you send us a message in our guide Private-sector Oresund commuters