VAT – Distance sales to non taxable persons in Sweden

Goods subject to excise tax

If you sell goods subject to excise tax, like alcohol and tobacco, then you will have to register for any sale to Swedish consumers regardless of how much you are selling.

Voluntary VAT registration

Even if you do not have to register for Swedish VAT as a distance seller, you can apply to register voluntarily and add Swedish VAT on all sales made to Swedish consumers. That way you do not have to keep track of a threshold. Many businesses opt to register voluntarily and pay VAT on all such sales.

When to register

The distance selling rules are only applicable to goods, never services, and it only takes place when a taxable person in one EU country sells and delivers goods to someone in another EU country who is not registered - and does not have to be registered - for VAT. So if you are outside the EU then any sales you make to Sweden are not distance sales and this information does not apply to you.

If the annual value of your distance sales to other EU-countries including Sweden are less than 10 000 €, then you charge home state VAT on your taxable sales at the rate that applies in your own country. You account and pay for it there too.

When you have exceeded the distance selling threshold you charge Swedish VAT on your VAT taxable sales at the Swedish rate instead of using your own country's rate and account for it here.

Your registration date is the date when the total turnover of your distance sales passed the threshold. It is also the date from when you have to start adding Swedish VAT to your sales.

Application for VAT registration:

• Registration of foreign companies in Sweden

Filing tax returns

After registration for VAT you shall submit Swedish tax returns quarterly. The tax returns are sent to you directly after registration. Information in English regarding how you as a non-Swedish business are to fill in the Tax returns is found here:

• Fill in the VAT return

If your sales exceed SEK 40 million, during a year, then you have to submit tax returns on a monthly basis.

Deregistration

A business must continue to be registered and add Swedish VAT to distance sales to Swedish consumers the calendar year after the year it first got registered. After that year and if the sales to Sweden did not exceed SEK 320 000 during the second calendar year, it is possible for the business to deregister and stop adding Swedish VAT on such sales. When de-registering you use form Ändringsanmälan (SKV 4639). 

• Ändringsanmälan (SKV 4639)