Tasks and Expertise
Tax relief may be granted on the grounds of the employee's tasks, level of education and experience. These grounds for an application are raised if the monthly remuneration is below the amount giving tax relief directly based on the remuneration rate.
Tasks
The possibility to receive tax relief based on tasks and expertise depends on your belonging to one of the categories "expert", "researcher" or "other key person" in the meaning of the law.
Please note, that these are only income tax notions. To be considered not to belong to any of the categories is no general assessment of your expertise and similar.
Expert
To be considered an "expert", your work must include specialist tasks of such nature or at such skill level that there is significant difficulty to recruit comparable personnel within Sweden.
A shortage of workforce in a specific area is not sufficient to classify you as an expert. The actual work have to demand a high degree of specialization or an unusual specialization. In principle the same level of expertise is required by both "experts" and "researchers". Standard is high, although an expert does not need to hold an academic degree at the same level as a researcher.
Persons typically eligible for tax relief as "experts" act in technically advanced and knowledge-intensive operations. For example, industrial technicians dealing with advanced product development and the application of new technology.
We make an overall assessment based on the facts submitted in the individual application. Therefore it is crucial to clearly state what tasks you will perform and what demands are placed on you to complete these tasks.
Researcher
To be considered a "researcher", your work must include qualified research or development tasks of such nature or at such skill level that there is significant difficulty to recruit comparable personnel within Sweden.
Qualified research tasks consist of independent research at a certain level. In general you must have developed your research expertise a further one or two years after
completion of your doctoral degree.
A student preparing a PhD thesis or a new PhD holder are examples of persons who are not eligible for tax relief as researchers.
Other key person
To be considered an "other key person", you must have business management functions or other responsibilities which give you a key position in a company.
Business management functions mean being responsible for the company's general management and administration, in particular as CEO.
As to other responsibilities, you must be a specialist within an area in the company. Holding a key position means that your work is decisive for the company's entire operations. Playing a central role only in a small fraction of the overall business is not sufficient to obtain tax relief.
Further, you must be employed by a company. The provisions on tax relief remain silent on what company means in this context. Our interpretation is that it refers to some form of financial enterprise. For example, administrators of public operations with no real
purpose of turning a profit are not eligible for tax relief as "other key persons".
The answer on whether or not you hold a key position is based on the individual company's situation. Therefore, your application must be well motivated and contain a clear and precise account of your position and its significance to the company.
Please describe your tasks, areas of responsibility and reporting channels. If you claim to have special expertise that is vital to the company, this require a special justification.