Your monthly employer declaration, box by box

You’ve decided to pay yourself 40,000 kronor in salary from your company in September. The money goes from the company account to your personal account on the 25th, and it’s easy to think you’re done. You’re not. By Monday 12 October, Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) needs to know what you were paid, how much tax the company withheld and how much the company owes in contributions. The money has to be in the tax account on the same day.

The payment date is what counts

The arbetsgivardeklaration (the monthly employer declaration) reports what the company paid out during a calendar month, whatever period the salary relates to. Salary paid in September goes in the September declaration. That declaration is due by 12 October if the company’s VAT taxable amount is no more than 40 million kronor, according to Skatteverket’s page on filing dates. In January and August the deadline is the 17th instead, and if the date falls on a weekend, the next working day applies.

This matters when you plan your salary around the turn of the year. A December salary paid on 30 December belongs to 2026 and has to be declared by 17 January 2027. That’s a Sunday, so the real deadline is Monday 18 January. Pay the same salary on 2 January and it goes in the January declaration instead, and counts as income for 2027.

Two parts, and yours is the one that matters

The declaration has a huvuduppgift (the main return for the company) and an individuppgift (a separate return for each person who was paid). In a one-person company, that means one individual return: yours. According to Skatteverket’s box-by-box guide, you normally fill in the following:

• box 215, your personnummer (personal identity number)
• box 570, a specifikationsnummer (reference number) you choose yourself, for example 1
• box 011, gross cash salary
• box 001, preliminary tax withheld
• boxes 245 and 246, the street address and town of your workplace, if you only had one place of work during the month

If you have taxable benefits, use box 012 for benefits in general and box 013 for a company car. A benefit is reported in the month you had it at your disposal. The online service then adds up contributions and tax into boxes 487 and 497 of the main return.

Worked example: 40,000 kronor

Say your municipal tax, regional tax and burial fee add up to a rate that rounds to 32 percent. The company then withholds tax using tax table 32 for 2026. Column 1, which covers salary for people who hadn’t turned 66 at the start of the year, gives a withholding of 8,151 kronor on a monthly salary of 40,000 kronor.

The arbetsgivaravgifter (employer’s social security contributions) are 31.42 percent if you were born in 1959 or later, which comes to 12,568 kronor. On your individual return you enter 40,000 in box 011 and 8,151 in box 001. You receive 31,849 kronor, the company’s total cost is 52,568 kronor, and 20,719 kronor has to be paid into the tax account.

If you employ your children, the rate may be lower. For people born 2003 to 2007, the company pays 20.81 percent on salary up to 25,000 kronor a month, from 1 April 2026 to 30 September 2027. For people born 1938 to 1958 the rate is 10.21 percent.

The money is due the same day as the declaration

For companies under the 40 million limit, contributions and withheld tax must be in Skatteverket’s account by the last filing day. You pay to bankgiro 5050-1055 using the company’s OCR reference number. If the money arrives late, the skattekonto (tax account) goes into deficit and interest starts to accrue. Pay a couple of days before the deadline so you don’t have to wonder whether the transfer made it.

Months without salary cost money if you forget them

Many owners pay themselves irregularly, sometimes only in December. As long as the company is registered as an employer, you still have to file a declaration every month. The online service has a button for declaring zero, and it takes a minute. Forget it and the förseningsavgift (late-filing fee) is 625 kronor per declaration, according to the same Skatteverket page.

If you only pay salary in certain months, seasonal registration as an employer may be worth a look. Read the conditions before you change anything, because it doesn’t fit every setup.

Correct mistakes using the same reference number

If you find a mistake, you can correct declarations up to six years back. Choose the period in the online service, click Rätta uppgifter (correct details) and change the amounts. The new individual return must have the same reference number as the old one. If it doesn’t, it’s added as an extra return, and it looks as if you were paid twice.

The tax table in the example only applies if you don’t have a jämkning decision (a ruling from Skatteverket that adjusts your withholding). If you do, that decision sets the withholding. Decide now which day in December you’ll pay your salary, and put 18 January 2027 in your calendar.