For Danes

How tax residency works

Denmark makes you fully tax liable (fuld skattepligt) in one of two ways: by having a home (bopæl) in Denmark that is available to you, or by staying in Denmark for more than six consecutive months. Short holidays abroad count as part of the six months. Fully liable people are taxed on worldwide income; everyone else pays only on Danish income, such as rent, Danish salary and many pensions.

The home test is the one that catches people. Skattestyrelsen, the Danish Tax Agency, generally treats full liability as continuing until you sell the home, end your lease, or rent it out for at least three years on a lease you cannot terminate. A summer house used only for holidays does not count as a home.

If you keep a Danish home and also live abroad, both countries may treat you as resident. A double tax treaty, where one exists, then decides where you are resident. Where there is no treaty, the Danish rules apply in full.

• Home available in Denmark: generally fully liable, even while living abroad.
• No home, but more than six months in a row in Denmark: fully liable from the first day of the stay.
• Neither: limited liability (begrænset skattepligt), taxed only on Danish income.

Leaving properly

Leaving properly is mostly about doing things in the right order: the home first, then the registers, then the tax returns.

1. 01

   Deal with the home

   Sell it, end your lease, or rent it out for at least three years on a lease you cannot end. A home kept empty and available to you normally keeps you fully liable.

2. 02

   Register your move with the CPR

   Report your move abroad to the CPR, the Civil Registration System, through borger.dk or your municipality. Your CPR number stays the same for life, but your status changes and your Danish public health insurance ends.

3. 03

   Contact Skattestyrelsen

   The Danish Tax Agency asks people to call about a week after deregistering and physically leaving, so it can decide when your full liability ended and adjust your preliminary income assessment (forskudsopgørelse).

4. 04

   File the exit return for shares

   If you held shares worth DKK 100,000 or more, file form 04.065 by 1 July of the year after you leave, and each year after that while a deferred balance remains. A late return removes the right to defer.

5. 05

   Sort out pensions and payments

   Apply on form 07.058 so your pension returns stop being taxed in Denmark. Keep a NemKonto, the account the Danish state pays refunds and benefits into; it can be a foreign account.

6. 06

   File the year you leave

   Your tax return for the year of departure covers worldwide income up to the date your full liability ended and Danish income after it. Your accountant confirms the split before you accept the assessment.

Exit tax, property and investments

Denmark has a real exit tax on shares (aktieavancebeskatning ved fraflytning). If your shares, listed or unlisted and including shares in your own company, were worth DKK 100,000 or more when your full liability ended, the gains are taxed as if you sold them that day, as share income at 27% or 42%. It applies only if you were taxable in Denmark for at least seven of the ten years before you left.

Payment can be deferred interest free. The tax becomes a deferred balance that falls due as you sell the shares, receive dividends or take loans from the company. If you move outside the EU and the Nordic countries, the deferral requires adequate collateral, which needs planning well before you go.

Crypto is treated as sold at market value on the day you leave, and similar rules reach gains on bonds, other claims and financial contracts. A Danish property you keep stays taxable in Denmark on its rent and gains. If it remains available to you as a home, it can also keep you fully liable.

Pensions and social security

Danish pension schemes can usually stay where they are. Once your full liability ends, you can apply to stop paying Danish tax on the returns. Payouts are later taxed according to the treaty with your new country, or in Denmark at an average rate where there is no treaty.

Some schemes let you cash out early when you move abroad permanently, but the Danish state then takes 60% of the payout. If more than 20% of your pay went into a company pension paying regular income, or an annuity scheme, in the five years before you left (ten years for principal shareholders), a supplementary tax on those contributions can also apply.

Folkepension, the Danish state pension, builds up with years of residence between age 15 and pension age, so years abroad reduce it. Danish citizens can take it to a country with no pension agreement if they lived in Denmark for 30 years before pension, or for at least 10 years, or a quarter of the time since age 15, running up to the pension date. Otherwise you apply for a dispensation before you move. The pension age is rising to 70 by 2040, and ATP, the statutory supplementary pension, can be paid abroad from pension age.

Dual citizenship

Since 1 September 2015, Danes can acquire another citizenship without losing Danish citizenship. From the Danish side, a second residency or a second passport is straightforward.

One rule matters for families abroad: Danes born abroad who have not lived in Denmark can lose their citizenship at 22 unless they apply to keep it between the ages of 20 and 22.

Changing your tax residence has no effect on your citizenship, and your Danish passport keeps your right to live in Denmark and anywhere in the EU.