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Expertskattereglerna – Kan Sverige konkurrera om högkvalificerad utländsk arbetskraft?

Thuresson, Linnéa LU (2025) LAGF03 20251
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
Expert tax rules have been in place in Sweden since 2001. The rules give certain foreigners the possibility of tax relief to make it more attractive for highly skilled workers to move to Sweden. Since their introduction, the rules have been criticized for being unpredictable, making them difficult to use as a recruitment tool. To address this problem, the rules were extended in 2012, but the problems with the original rules remain. The government has therefore appointed an inquiry chair to review the expert tax rules and in January 2025 an interim report (SOU 2025:3) was published with several proposals for changes to the rules.

The paper focuses on the so-called competence rule of the expert tax rules and its formal requirements. The... (More)
Expert tax rules have been in place in Sweden since 2001. The rules give certain foreigners the possibility of tax relief to make it more attractive for highly skilled workers to move to Sweden. Since their introduction, the rules have been criticized for being unpredictable, making them difficult to use as a recruitment tool. To address this problem, the rules were extended in 2012, but the problems with the original rules remain. The government has therefore appointed an inquiry chair to review the expert tax rules and in January 2025 an interim report (SOU 2025:3) was published with several proposals for changes to the rules.

The paper focuses on the so-called competence rule of the expert tax rules and its formal requirements. The current competence rule means that workers who are deemed to be experts, researchers or key persons in the sense of the law can be granted tax relief. SOU 2025:3 proposes that the competence rule be clarified by instead explicitly setting requirements for the work tasks and that the employee must have a doctoral degree or equivalent experience. In addition, it is proposed that some of the formal requirements be abolished or changed. However, the respondents believe that even the new formulations may be difficult to interpret and thus remain unpredictable. The paper also provides an overview of tax reliefs that exist in other OECD countries, particularly Denmark, demonstrating that the structure of the tax reliefs varies from country to country. However, in several countries the rules are, in some aspects, more favourable than the Swedish ones.

This paper concludes with an analysis of the Swedish expert tax rules, focusing on the proposed changes in SOU 2025:3 and how these may affect the appropriateness of the rules regarding its purpose of strengthening Sweden's competitiveness in attracting qualified foreign employees. The conclusion is that the proposed changes entail significant changes and to some extent can be assumed to make the expert tax rules more appropriate. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Det har funnits expertskatteregler i Sverige sedan 2001. Reglerna ger vissa utländska personer möjlighet till skattelättnader i syfte att göra det mer attraktivt för högkvalificerade arbetstagare att flytta till Sverige. Reglerna har sedan införandet kritiserats för att vara oförutsebara, vilket försvårar deras användning som rekryteringsverktyg. För att hantera detta problem utökades reglerna under 2012, men problematiken kvarstår vad gäller de ursprungliga reglerna. Regeringen har därför tillsatt en särskild utredare till att se över expertskattereglerna och i januari 2025 publicerades ett delbetänkande (SOU 2025:3) med flera förslag på förändringar av reglerna.

Uppsatsen fokuserar på expertskattereglernas så kallade kompetensregel... (More)
Det har funnits expertskatteregler i Sverige sedan 2001. Reglerna ger vissa utländska personer möjlighet till skattelättnader i syfte att göra det mer attraktivt för högkvalificerade arbetstagare att flytta till Sverige. Reglerna har sedan införandet kritiserats för att vara oförutsebara, vilket försvårar deras användning som rekryteringsverktyg. För att hantera detta problem utökades reglerna under 2012, men problematiken kvarstår vad gäller de ursprungliga reglerna. Regeringen har därför tillsatt en särskild utredare till att se över expertskattereglerna och i januari 2025 publicerades ett delbetänkande (SOU 2025:3) med flera förslag på förändringar av reglerna.

Uppsatsen fokuserar på expertskattereglernas så kallade kompetensregel och reglernas formella krav. Den nuvarande kompetensregeln innebär att arbetsta-gare som bedöms vara experter, forskare eller nyckelpersoner i lagens mening kan beviljas skattelättnader. I SOU 2025:3 föreslås att kompetensregeln ska förtydligas genom att istället uttryckligen ställa krav på arbetsuppgifterna samt att arbetstagaren ska ha en doktorsexamen eller motsvarande erfarenhet. Dessutom föreslås att vissa av de formella kraven ska slopas eller ändras. Remissinstanserna menar dock att även de nya formuleringarna kan bli svårtolkade och därmed fortsatt oförutsebara. Uppsatsen redogör även översiktligt för skattelättnader som finns i andra OECD-länder, särskilt Danmark, och det framgår att det varierar hur skattelättnaderna är uppbyggda i de olika länderna. Det går dock att se att i flera länder är reglerna, i vissa aspekter, mer förmån-liga än de svenska.

Denna uppsats avslutas med en analys av de svenska expertskattereglerna med fokus på de föreslagna förändringarna i SOU 2025:3 och hur dessa kan påverka reglernas ändamålsenlighet avseende dess syfte att stärka Sveriges konkurrenskraft när det gäller att attrahera kvalificerad utländsk arbetskraft. Slutsatsen är att de förslagna förändringarna innebär betydande förändringar och till viss del kan antas göra expertskattereglerna mer ändamålsenliga. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Thuresson, Linnéa LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20251
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Skatterätt, Expertskatt, Expertskattereglerna, Kompetensregeln, Expert, Forskare, Nyckelperson, OECD
language
Swedish
id
9190111
date added to LUP
2025-06-23 13:34:52
date last changed
2025-06-23 13:34:52
@misc{9190111,
  abstract     = {{Expert tax rules have been in place in Sweden since 2001. The rules give certain foreigners the possibility of tax relief to make it more attractive for highly skilled workers to move to Sweden. Since their introduction, the rules have been criticized for being unpredictable, making them difficult to use as a recruitment tool. To address this problem, the rules were extended in 2012, but the problems with the original rules remain. The government has therefore appointed an inquiry chair to review the expert tax rules and in January 2025 an interim report (SOU 2025:3) was published with several proposals for changes to the rules. 

The paper focuses on the so-called competence rule of the expert tax rules and its formal requirements. The current competence rule means that workers who are deemed to be experts, researchers or key persons in the sense of the law can be granted tax relief. SOU 2025:3 proposes that the competence rule be clarified by instead explicitly setting requirements for the work tasks and that the employee must have a doctoral degree or equivalent experience. In addition, it is proposed that some of the formal requirements be abolished or changed. However, the respondents believe that even the new formulations may be difficult to interpret and thus remain unpredictable. The paper also provides an overview of tax reliefs that exist in other OECD countries, particularly Denmark, demonstrating that the structure of the tax reliefs varies from country to country. However, in several countries the rules are, in some aspects, more favourable than the Swedish ones. 

This paper concludes with an analysis of the Swedish expert tax rules, focusing on the proposed changes in SOU 2025:3 and how these may affect the appropriateness of the rules regarding its purpose of strengthening Sweden's competitiveness in attracting qualified foreign employees. The conclusion is that the proposed changes entail significant changes and to some extent can be assumed to make the expert tax rules more appropriate.}},
  author       = {{Thuresson, Linnéa}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Expertskattereglerna – Kan Sverige konkurrera om högkvalificerad utländsk arbetskraft?}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}