Approval for F-tax

If you don’t have Swedish e-identification, you can fill in a form instead.

• Preliminary income tax return 1 (SKV 4314) (in Swedish)

How to show that you have been granted F-tax approval

• State that you are approved F-tax (“Godkänd för F-skatt”) on quotes and contracts.
  
• Write “Godkänd för F-skatt” on every invoice.
  
• Present the population registration certificate (extract from the population register) you received when you were granted F-tax approval.

You will receive a population registration certificate (an extract from the population register) when you are registered for F-tax, VAT or as an employer by the Swedish Tax Agency. You can always log in to “My pages” (Mina sidor) to view and print out your population registration certificate.

If you have been granted FA-tax status, you must state this in writing (in your quotes and invoices, for example) for every assignment. If you fail to do so, A-tax applies, which means that your client is obliged to deduct tax from your fee and pay employer contributions. F-tax does not apply to work you do as an employee. Employers are obliged to notify the Swedish Tax Agency in writing if an employee refers to an F-tax approval in connection with an evident employment relationship.

If your F-tax approval is withdrawn, remember to remove any statements relating to F-tax approval from your invoices and quotes.

Requirements for F-tax certification

You are eligible for F-tax approval if you conduct business activities, or have plans to do so. If you plan to become a sole trader and wish to be approved for F-tax, your business must fulfil certain criteria. The business must:

• be independent
  
• be intended for profit-making purposes
  
• be long term.

Operations run by a legal entity, such as a limited company or partnership, are normally always taxed as businesses activities. According to the circumstances of each individual case, the Swedish Tax Agency will determine whether the party applying for F-tax may be considered to be conducting business activities, or to be intent on doing so. Having a few clients – or in some cases just one – may be sufficient to satisfy the requirements for F-tax approval.

Someone who starts a business with their former employer as their first client maybe considered an independent trader in some circumstances. In other cases, however, such an assignment will be regarded as employment. Find out more (in Swedish) about economic activities in the section Vad är näringsverksamhet?  (What is a business activity?).

You are not eligible for F-tax if you:

• have failed to declare and pay taxes to more than a limited extent (whether for yourself or for a close company that you have managed).
  
• are prohibited from trading.
  
• have been declared bankrupt.
  
• previously have misused your F-tax approval.

Special requirements if you have lived in Sweden for less than two years

If you have lived in Sweden for less than two years, you need to send us documentation showing that you do not have any unpaid taxes in the countries in which you have lived during the past two years.

When you have applied to the Swedish Tax Agency for F-tax approval, we will contact you and ask you to complement your application by providing this documentation. Make sure you request this complementary documentation when you apply for F-tax so that you can send it as soon as we contact you. This will help us to process your application faster.

You can request this documentation from the relevant public authority in the country in question – for example, its tax agency or equivalent authority. When you apply for F-tax, the documentation you submit must have been issued within the past three months.

If your application relates to a legal entity such as a limited company, each director who has lived in Sweden for less than two years must submit this documentation.

How to check for F-tax approval

You can use our e-service to check whether a company you are thinking about hiring is approved for F-tax:

• Go to the e-service for information about companies: Hämta företagsinformation.
  
• Fill in the company registration number (“organisationsnummer”). For a sole trader, this is the same as their personal identity number (“personnummer”)
  
• Fill in the email address to which you would like the information sent
  
• Click “Skicka” (Send).

You do not require Swedish e-identification to use this service.

How to pay F-tax for your company

If you have been approved for F-tax, you must pay preliminary tax on a monthly basis. This applies whether you are a sole trader or run a limited company or partnership. Self-employed contributions for sole traders are included in the deducted preliminary tax.

When you register your company and apply for F-tax or FA-tax approval, you also have to file a preliminary income tax return including details of the profit you expect the company to make. The Swedish Tax Agency will use the information you provide to calculate how much preliminary tax you are due to pay. You will then receive written notification of our decision, with details of the amount of preliminary tax and when you need to make each payment.

When you need to submit information that is relevant to your deducted preliminary tax, or if you need to change the amount you pay, the simplest thing to do is to submit a new preliminary income tax return through our “Preliminär inkomstdeklaration” (“Preliminary income tax return”) e-service.

Self-employed contributions

Besides paying employees a salary, employers also pay employer contributions for all staff to cover their pension payments and health insurance. If you are a partner in a limited company, you are considered a company employee when you pay yourself a salary. If you are a sole trader with F-tax certification, you have no employer to make social security contributions on your behalf. You have to pay these yourself in the form of self-employed contributions, calculated on the basis of your profits. These self-employed contributions are included in your debited preliminary tax. If your business operations are passive (property management, for example), you normally pay special payroll tax instead. This special payroll tax amounts to somewhat less than self-employed contributions.

Self-employed contributions and special payroll tax are deductible during the current tax year. When you state your expected profit, either on registering your company or on completing a preliminary income tax return, you should therefore make a flat-rate deduction for self-employed contributions or special payroll tax. The amount you should deduct depends on factors such as your age and whether or not you receive sickness or activity compensation.

Protect your F-tax approval

If you have been approved for F-tax, you are certified to manage your own taxes, and your clients can hire you to carry out work without any risk of becoming responsible for your taxes and expenses.

If you don’t declare or pay your taxes, your F-tax approval may be withdrawn. This can make it difficult for you to get new assignments. Many companies only hire contractors approved for F‑tax. Creditors may also check for F-tax approval in connection with loan applications, since this shows whether or not you have handled your tax payments properly. If your F-tax approval is withdrawn, you might need to file a new preliminary income tax return. If your F-tax approval has been withdrawn and you accept an assignment from a client, you have to be treated as an employee. This means that the client must deduct tax from your fee and pay employer contributions. If you have a limited company, your client must deduct tax from the money you charge them.