Wage guarantees for employees
The Swedish Tax Agency makes wage guarantee payments to you, but the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer decides on the amount that you receive.
The wage guarantee means that you can receive compensation for unpaid salary or wages when your employer undergoes bankruptcy or business reorganisation.
The Swedish Tax Agency makes wage guarantee payments when bankruptcy and reorganisation decisions are reached from 1 February 2025. In earlier cases of bankruptcy and business reorganisation proceedings (up to and including 31 January 2025), wage guarantee payments are made by the County Administrative Board.
You will normally receive your wage guarantee payment for earned salary within 5-10 working days from the day we receive the decision from the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer. For your wage guarantee for notice-period salary you will normally receive the payment within 5-10 working days from the time you submitted your declaration for the period.
Who reaches wage guarantee decisions?
When your employer has gone bankrupt, the district court appoints a bankruptcy trustee. When your employer undergoes a business reorganisation, the district court appoints a business reorganisation officer.
The bankruptcy trustee business reorganisation officer decides whether you are entitled to a wage guarantee payment, as well as the amount you receive. In certain cases, the Swedish Enforcement Authority (“Kronofogden”) reaches a decision regarding the wage guarantee.
Contact the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer if you have any questions
If you have any questions regarding the wage guarantee payment you are due to receive, contact the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer. When you have received your wage guarantee decision from the bankruptcy trustee or the reorganisation officer, it is important that you read the decision.
If any information is incorrect, such as your bank account number, you should contact the bankruptcy trustee or the reorganisation officer as soon as possible. You can find their contact details on your wage guarantee decision notice. Here, you can also find out what to do if you are not satisfied with the decision.
Your wage guarantee entitlement
The maximum wage guarantee payment corresponds to four times the price base amount. For decisions reached in 2025, this is SEK 235,200. You are entitled to wage guarantee payments for a maximum of eight months. The amount you earn and the length of your notice period therefore determine your wage guarantee entitlement period.
What does a wage guarantee cover?
A wage guarantee can cover the following, for example:
- salary or wages you have earned no earlier than three months before the application for bankruptcy or business reorganisation was submitted to the district court
- salary or wages for the first month after the bankruptcy or business reorganisation decision is reached
- holiday pay and holiday allowance
- notice-period salary
- your cost of filing for the employer’s bankruptcy.
A wage guarantee does not cover benefits. If you have a benefit, for example car benefit or housing benefit, your employer must report it.
Wage guarantee for earned income
When the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer has submitted a decision notice for earned income to the Swedish Tax Agency, you do not need to submit a declaration.
Wage guarantee for notice-period salary
If you have lost your job and would have been entitled to compensation during your notice period, you are entitled to a wage guarantee for your notice-period salary.
In order for you to be granted a wage guarantee for your notice-period salary, you need to submit a declaration for each period to the Swedish Tax Agency throughout the wage guarantee period. A period begins on the 21st and extends until the 20th of the following month. In some cases, a period may be shorter. When you have received the wage guarantee decision for notice-period salary, you can submit your declaration for the current period on the 20th at the earliest.
Example – submit your declaration
Tyra has received a wage guarantee decision from the bankruptcy trustee that she will receive wage guarantee for notice-period salary 1 April to 31 May. In order for Tyra to receive wage guarantee payments, she needs to submit a declaration for three periods.
- For 1 – 20 April, Tyra can submit the declaration on 20 April at the earliest.
- For 21 April – 20 May, Tyra can submit the declaration on 20 May at the earliest.
- For 21 – 31 May, Tyra can submit the declaration on 20 June at the earliest.
Submit your declaration in the e-service
You submit your declaration by logging in to the e-service Lönegaranti – Lämna försäkran. In the e-service, you can change the language to English. In the e-service, you must provide information if you during the period have:
- Worked in the company
- Got a new job.
- Received any compensation other than salary.
If you are exempted from work, you answer no to the question if you have continued to work in the company.
You also send us a registration certificate confirming that you are registered as a job seeker with the Swedish Public Employment Service (“Arbetsförmedlingen”). You can download the certificate by logging in to the Swedish Public Employment Service's website.
Use our e-service
Before you receive your payment
The Swedish Tax Agency will carry out certain checks and controls before making a wage guarantee payment to you. If your case needs to be verified, we will send a message to the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer so that they can check the details and submit a new wage guarantee decision notice, or notify us that the current decision remains unchanged.
The Swedish Tax Agency will deduct tax from the payment amount, in accordance with your wage guarantee decision notice, before making a wage guarantee payment to your bank account. We deduct preliminary tax according to your relevant tax table for monthly salary or according to a preliminary tax adjustment decision (“jämkning”). Even if you have a SINK decision or a decision from the Taxation of Research Workers Board, the Swedish Tax Agency cannot deduct preliminary tax according to these decisions.
If you receive wage guarantee payment for earned income for more than one calendar month, the deducted preliminary tax according to the tax table will be high. You can then apply for a preliminary tax adjustment (“jämkning”). Deducted preliminary tax for the rest of the year should be made in accordance to the preliminary tax adjustment decision (“jämkning”) instead of your tax table.
The Swedish Tax Agency receives the account details for wage guarantee payments from the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer.
When to expect your payment
You will normally receive your wage guarantee payment for earned salary within 5-10 working days from the day we receive the decision from the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer. For your wage guarantee for notice-period salary you will normally recieve the payment within 5-10 working days from the time you submitted your declaration for the period.
When you receive the payment, you will also receive a payment specification (utbetalningsspecifikation) with details about:
- Wage guarantee payment amount
- Payment date
- Which account the Swedish Tax Agency paid the amount to
- Specification of what the amount consists of and what period it refers to
After you have received your payment
The Swedish Tax Agency reports your wage guarantee payments and deducted tax amounts in an individual statement. To check these details, log in to “My pages” (“Mina sidor”) and go to Taxes and tax returns (“Skatter och deklarationer”) and “Details of my income” (“Mina inkomstuppgifter”).
Here's what to do if your employment has been terminated, you get another job or if you stop working in Sweden
You can find out here what you may need to consider if your employment has been terminated, you get another job or if you stop working in Sweden.
Make sure to update your address and bank account details
Notify a new address - If you have a personal identity number
You must notify the Swedish Tax Agency if you are going to move to another country, or to a different address in Sweden.
You can notify us using our “Report a change of address” (“Flyttanmälan”) e-service. Alternatively, you can fill in form SKV 7845: “Notification – moving within Sweden”, which is in Swedish.
Notification – moving within Sweden (SKV 7845, in Swedish)
If you are moving away from Sweden you must notify the Swedish Tax Agency.
You notify us by submitting form SKV 7665b (Notification – moving abroad).
Notification – moving abroad (SKV 7665b)
Notify a new address - If you have a coordination number
If you move, you must notify the Tax Agency of your new contact address. To do this, fill in and submit form SKV 7542, or send us an email via the contact form on our website. You must notify us regardless of whether your new address is in Sweden or abroad.
Coordination number – contact address (SKV 7542, in Swedish)
We will use your contact address if we need to get in touch with you – for example, to send you your income tax return or final tax decision.
Suspension of coordination number
If you have a coordination number and you are going to move away from Sweden, you can notify us that you want your coordination number to be suspended. This will help protecting your coordination number from being used by someone else. You do this by sending us a letter, using the following address:
The Swedish Tax Agency
205 30 Malmö
Registering a bank account for a tax refund
If you are due to receive a tax refund, the Swedish Tax Agency will make the payment to your bank account – provided that you have registered the account number with us. Remember to register a new account if you change banks. You can register either a Swedish or a foreign bank account for tax refunds.
Wage guarantee payments
Keep in mind that the Swedish Tax Agency will pay your wage guarantee to the bank account of which the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer has been notified by you or your employer. It is important to notify the bankruptcy trustee or business reorganisation officer if you change bank accounts.
Useful information about income tax and preliminary tax adjustment (“jämkning”)
Are you unsure whether you’re paying the right amount of income tax?
You can use our Swedish e-service “Räkna ut din skatt” to help you calculate the total amount of tax you need to pay for the year. The e-service shows whether you are due a refund or have additional tax to pay.
Calculate your tax
External link. (in Swedish)
Preliminary tax adjustment
The payer of your compensation for work will normally deduct preliminary tax in accordance with the tax table that applies to you. But in some circumstances – for example, if you receive compensation from several payers – the total amount of preliminary tax deducted might be too high or too low. If so, you can apply for an adjustment to your preliminary tax for the rest of the year.
Preliminary tax adjustment – pay the right amount of tax from the start (in Swedish)
Filing an income tax return in Sweden
Filing an income tax return
You might be required to file a Swedish income tax return even if you have moved away from Sweden. If you are liable for taxation in Sweden, you normally have to file an income tax return with the Swedish Tax Agency no later than 2 May of the year after you earned the money.
Do I need to file a tax return?
Appointing a tax return representative
You can appoint a tax return representative if you want someone else to help you with your tax returns – for example, to file your tax returns digitally.
Application, e-services – Tax return representative (SKV 4809)
Tax deductions for work-related costs: business trips, dual residence or temporary employment
You might be entitled to a tax deduction for journeys to and from work, for example. You might also be entitled to a deduction for dual residence or temporary work, if you have moved to a new place of residence because of your work. If you work in a place other than your place of residence, you might be entitled to a deduction for journeys home. For more information, please see common deductions in the tax return and our Swedish brochure SKV 354: “Subsistence allowance and reimbursement of other expenses” (“Traktamenten och andra kostnadsersättningar”).
Common deductions in the tax return – Declaring your income
Subsistence allowance and reimbursement of other expenses (SKV 354, in Swedish)
If you own a residential property in Sweden you must pay property charge
If you own a property (such as a house or a holiday home) in Sweden, you must pay the property charge.
Owning real property in Sweden - Living abroad
Property charge and property tax
If you have sold your residential house or apartment
If you have sold a residential house or apartment, you must declare the sale in your tax return and pay tax on any profit.
Sale of a cooperative flat (tenant-owner property)
Calculate profit, loss and capital gains tax at the time of sale (in Swedish)
If you rent out your residential house or apartment
If you rent out a residential property in Sweden, you must declare this in a tax return.
Renting out private residential property
Form to help you calculate the sursplus when renting out your property (in Swedish) (SKV 2199)
To use e-services and your digital mailbox
Using a digital mailbox and the Swedish Tax Agency’s e-services
You need Swedish eID in order to use most of the Swedish Tax Agency’s e-services. If you are moving away from Sweden, check with your bank whether you will be able to keep your eID after you have moved.
You need Swedish eID to access a digital mailbox. If you cannot keep your eID, you need to cancel your digital mailbox.
Taxation of wage guarantee when you have moved away from Sweden
Apply for special income tax for non-residents (SINK)
If you have moved away from Sweden and you are due to receive a wage guarantee, all or part of your income may be covered by the rules on special income tax for non-residents (“SINK”). You apply to be taxed according to the SINK rules via our e-service “Application for special income tax for non-residents” (“Ansökan om särskild inkomstskatt för utomlands bosatta”) or via form SKV 4350.
SINK – special income tax for non-residents
Taxation of wage guarantees
Wage guarantees count as taxable income in Sweden – even if you have moved to another country.
Keep in mind that your wage guarantee might also be taxable in the country you are moving to. You must check this with the tax authority in that country.
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