For Swedes

How tax residency works

Under chapter 3 of the Income Tax Act (inkomstskattelagen), you have unlimited tax liability (obegränsad skattskyldighet) if you are resident in Sweden (bosatt), if you stay there continuously (stadigvarande vistelse, broadly six months or more), or if you used to live there and keep an essential connection (väsentlig anknytning). Unlimited liability means tax on worldwide income. Limited liability means tax only on certain Swedish income.

The five year rule: if you are a Swedish citizen, or have lived in Sweden for at least ten years, you are presumed to keep an essential connection for five years from the day you leave, unless you show that you do not. The burden of proof is on you. After five years it passes to Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency.

A tax treaty can change the outcome. If you are resident in a treaty country under the treaty’s tie breaker rules, Sweden’s right to tax you is limited, although you may still need to file. Moving to a country without a treaty with Sweden means you have to break the essential connection itself.

• Whether you are a Swedish citizen, and how long you lived in Sweden.
• Whether you have settled permanently in a specific place abroad, or are abroad for study or health reasons.
• A home in Sweden fitted out for year round use.
• Family in Sweden, meaning a spouse or children under 18.
• A business in Sweden, or holdings that give you significant influence over a Swedish business.
• Real estate in Sweden. One strong factor can be enough.

Leaving properly

Two separate things have to happen: deregistering from the population register, and ending unlimited tax liability. The first is a form; the second depends on how you actually arrange your life.

1. 01

   Report the move to Skatteverket

   If you will live abroad for a year or more, report it at least one week before you leave, online with a Swedish eID in simple cases or on form SKV 7665. This removes you from folkbokföring, the population register. Your personal identity number and citizenship stay.

2. 02

   Break the essential connection

   Sell your year round home or let it on a long lease, move your spouse and children with you, and step back from controlling roles in Swedish businesses where you can.

3. 03

   Settle in one place abroad

   Show a permanent home in a specific place, with a lease or title, local residency and ideally a tax residence certificate. Moving between countries without settling weakens your position.

4. 04

   File for the year you leave

   File the Swedish return for the year of departure, including foreign income for the part of the year you were still unlimited taxable. Keep filing while the five year presumption still applies to you.

5. 05

   Apply for SINK on pensions

   If you will receive a Swedish pension while living abroad, apply to Skatteverket for SINK, the special income tax for people resident abroad.

6. 06

   Tell the agencies

   Notify Försäkringskassan, the Social Insurance Agency, and Pensionsmyndigheten, the Pensions Agency. Residence based benefits usually stop once you live abroad.

Exit tax, property and investments

Sweden has no general exit tax on individuals. Instead, the ten year rule in chapter 3, section 19 of the Income Tax Act lets Sweden tax capital gains on shares in Swedish companies, and on foreign shares bought while you had unlimited liability, if you lived in Sweden at any point in the year of the sale or the ten calendar years before it. Units in investment funds and shares held in an ISK are outside this rule. Many tax treaties limit it, so the treaty with your new country matters.

An ISK (investeringssparkonto), the flat taxed investment account, can usually stay open after you move, but the flat ISK tax stops once you have limited liability. Swedish dividends then carry kupongskatt, the withholding tax on dividends, at 30% before any treaty reduction, and some providers restrict accounts for clients living outside the EU and EEA. Your new country may tax the account under its own rules.

Swedish property stays taxable in Sweden: rental income and gains on a sale are taxed there after you leave. A year round home kept available to you is also one of the strongest factors for an essential connection, so decide early whether to sell, let or keep it.

Pensions and social security

Your earnings related state pension, the inkomstpension and premiepension, is paid wherever you live. The guarantee pension (garantipension), the minimum top up for people with low earnings, is no longer paid to people who move abroad, with narrow exceptions. Pensionsmyndigheten asks for a life certificate each year.

Swedish pensions paid to people living abroad are taxed through SINK, a flat final tax of 22.5% in 2026 that falls to 20% from 2027, with a small monthly tax free amount on state pensions. Depending on the tax treaty, Sweden may keep the right to tax the pension or it may be taxed where you live. Occupational pensions and private pension insurance usually cannot be cashed out early because you move.

Once you move abroad for a year or more you generally leave Swedish residence based social insurance, and with it subsidised healthcare in Sweden, except in limited cases such as EU coordination rules.

Dual citizenship

Sweden has allowed dual citizenship since 1 July 2001. Swedes who acquire another citizenship by residence, naturalisation or investment keep their Swedish one.

One rule matters if you have children abroad. A Swedish citizen born abroad who has never lived in Sweden, and has not spent time there in a way that shows a connection, loses Swedish citizenship at 22 unless they apply to keep it between the ages of 18 and 22. Regular visits or a period living in Sweden normally avoid this.