Your preliminary income assessment is kind of your current income and tax budget for the present year. It tells you about your expected income, deductions and allowances and the tax rate used by your employer to withhold tax.
Your preliminary income assessment is available each year in November, and it shows our estimate of your tax for the coming year. If your financial situation changes, you should change your assessment in order to pay the right amount of tax throughout the year.
When you make changes to your preliminary income assessment you also make changes to your tax card which is automatically sent to whoever pays your salary, your student grant or pension.
You can see and change your preliminary income assessment in E-tax (TastSelv).
If you want to see your actual earnings, your deductions and allowances and how much you paid in tax last year, you need to check your tax assessment notice.
Please note that certain help texts in your preliminary income assessment are available in English. Click the question mark for the help text and then the English flag.
See and change your preliminary income assessment
Calculate your pay
Tax card is the collective name for tax exemption card, secondary tax card and primary tax card. Everybody who earns more than their tax exemption card needs a primary tax card and a secondary tax card. You need to inform your employer, the state education grant administration or, for example, your pension provider whether to use your primary or secondary tax card.
- Your primary tax card is used for your primary income (your job or the state education grant (SU), for example).
- Your secondary tax card is only used if you have more than one employer etc., and it can be used by several different parties at the same time.
See who uses your primary and secondary tax cards by logging on and clicking ‘Søg i indkomstoplysninger' (Search income information)
Read more about the tax exemption card
Only one employer should use your primary tax card
You need to inform your employer etc. whether to use your primary or secondary tax card.
Your primary tax card should only be used by one employer etc. Everybody else must use your secondary tax card. If your primary tax card is used by more than one party, you may end up paying too little tax.
It may happen that your employer or whoever pays your salary, student grant or pension uses the wrong tax card. If so, you need to ask the relevant party to retrieve the correct tax card electronically from SKAT, as you are unable to do it yourself.
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Inform your employer etc. whether it is your primary or secondary tax card that should be used.
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When your employer etc. has retrieved the new tax card, he can correct the payment you receive.
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If you have paid too much tax, you will receive a refund the following year.
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If your employer etc. experiences problems retrieving your tax card, he will need to contact the Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) on phone (+45) 72 22 28 24.
If you want to raise your withholding rate, you need to ask your employer to do so. You are not able to do it yourself, and the Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) cannot do it for you either.
Alternatively, lower your deductions
You can lower your deductions (such as deduction for interest expenses or deduction for transport between home and work) in order to pay more tax during the year. In this way, you reduce the risk of having to pay outstanding tax the following year.
Be cautious if you enter a higher income
It is unlikely that raising your withholding rate by entering a higher income in your preliminary income assessment will have any effect. This method is only an option if you pay top-bracket tax.
If you enter a higher income and you earn less than DKK 350,520 in 2018 (DKK 342,860 in 2017), you risk paying too little tax. The reason is that if you enter a higher income, you will automatically be granted a higher employment allowance than what you are entitled to.
If your financial situation changes, you can make a calculation to see if you should change your preliminary income assessment. You can calculate your tax for 2018 (in Danish only) and compare the result with your current preliminary income assessment. However, you need to be up to date on your financial situation as you need to enter all relevant information.
Please see our legal guide (in Danish) for further legal information.