Reading a Swedish Payslip: Tax Tables, Holiday Pay and Benefits

Your first lönespecifikation (payslip) is full of Swedish line names and a tax figure that looks arbitrary. It isn’t. Here is the slip in the order it’s printed, the rule behind each line, and what to do when a number looks wrong.

When you need this

You’ve just received your first Swedish payslip and the tax looks too high, or suspiciously low. The header says tabell 33, kolumn 1 and nobody explained it. Your summer slip shows semesterlön and semestertillägg, or a sick week shows a karensavdrag. You left a job and the final holiday compensation lost a startling share to tax. Or a förmånsvärde line appeared for lunches or a car, and your net pay went down.

This page reads the slip. When the salary arrives, and what happens when the 25th is a Sunday, is covered in our guide to payday on the 25th.

The payslip, line by line

Swedish payroll systems print items by type in a fairly fixed order, with year-to-date totals at the bottom. The slip also works as your receipt that the employer withheld preliminary tax. We found no statute that requires a payslip as such. What the law does require is that your employer gives you written pay terms within seven calendar days of starting, and withholds tax at every payment.

The tax line: table and column

On regular salary that is your main income, your employer withholds tax by a general tax table, according to your preliminary A-tax decision (A-skattsedel). Two numbers decide it.

The table number reflects the combined municipal tax and fee rate in the municipality where you were registered (folkbokförd) on 1 November the year before. Tables run from 29 to 42. That is why two colleagues on identical salaries can take home different amounts, and why moving mid-year doesn’t change your table until the next year.

The column reflects your age and kind of income. Column 1 is ordinary pay for anyone under 66 on 1 January; column 3 is pay to people 66 or older; other columns cover pensions and benefits.

Don’t read the table number as the share of your whole salary that goes in tax. The tables already include municipal and state income tax, the public pension contribution, the burial fee, the church fee if you’re a Church of Sweden member, and the public service fee. They also subtract the basic allowance and the job tax credit, so the share actually withheld is lower than the table number. In January, an employer may still use last year’s table.

If your employer has no tax information from Skatteverket and you haven’t shown your A-tax decision when asked, the law says it must withhold by the local table plus 10%. Download your decision from Skatteverket’s e-service and hand it over on day one. Why the tax is the size it is belongs to our guide to Swedish taxes and welfare.

One-off tax, second jobs and SINK

Not every line uses your table. This is where most “my tax is wrong” moments come from.

The one-off table is why holiday compensation on your final slip can look over-taxed. The percentage depends on what your main employer expects to pay you over the whole year, including benefits and the one-off sum itself, and on high annual pay it is over half. Final tax is settled in your tax return, so anything withheld above your real tax comes back.

Two employers? The second one withholds a flat 30% whatever you earn. For a high earner that can be too little and leave residual tax; for a low earner, too much. The fix is jämkning: Skatteverket gives your main payer a percentage, and the others stay at 30%. You can also simply ask an employer to withhold more. It must start no later than the first payday two weeks after you ask.

Here for six months or less? Non-residents can apply for SINK, a flat tax instead of the tables. The rate dropped in 2026 and drops again in 2027, so ignore older pages quoting a higher figure; even Skatteverket’s English SINK page still contains one outdated sentence. See our SINK guide and the table below.

Holiday pay

Most monthly-paid staff are under the Annual Leave Act’s same-salary rule (sammalöneregeln). Your normal monthly salary simply keeps coming while you’re on leave, and you also get a semestertillägg (holiday supplement) of 0.43% of your monthly salary for each paid holiday day. For weekly pay it’s 1.82% of the weekly salary. On variable pay elements, such as commission, holiday pay is 12% of the variable pay due in the leave year.

Hourly and variable earners are usually on the percentage rule instead: holiday pay is 12% of earnings in the earning year. When a job ends, holiday pay not yet taken becomes semesterersättning, cash compensation, which is taxed by the one-off table. Collective agreements may set other holiday-pay rules, so check yours. The full leave rules, including saved days and the summer block, are in our guide to annual leave in Sweden.

Sick pay and other deductions

Sick days appear as two lines. For the first 14 days your employer pays sjuklön, sick pay of 80% of the pay you lose, and takes one karensavdrag per sick period: 20% of the sick pay for an average week. For a five-day week that is roughly one day’s sick pay. After ten karensavdrag in twelve months no more are taken. The rules on reporting and doctor’s notes are in our sick-leave guide.

Unpaid leave (tjänstledighet) is deducted under your collective agreement, not a statute. A common pattern is a deduction per working day for absences up to five days, per calendar day for longer ones, and per hour for part days. Ask payroll which agreement applies; our guide to collective agreements explains why it matters.

Money you owe your employer can’t just be taken from your pay. Under the Employer’s Right of Set-Off Act, your employer may offset its own claim only with your consent, for a clear and due debt under an agreement that allows it, or for damage you caused deliberately at work. Even then it may not touch what you need to support yourself and your family, and tax always comes first. A line marked utmätning is different: that is a wage attachment ordered by Kronofogden.

Benefits and tax-free allowances

A förmån (benefit) is a private cost your employer pays for you: free meals, a company car, fuel. Its taxable value, the förmånsvärde, is added to your tax base without adding cash, then subtracted again before net pay. The result is more tax and the same money. If you pay part of a benefit back by a net deduction (nettolöneavdrag), the benefit value is reduced. A gross deduction doesn’t reduce it.

Some payments are tax-free when they stay within Skatteverket’s standard amounts:

• Per diem (traktamente) on business trips with an overnight stay more than 50 km from your workplace and home
• Mileage (milersättning) for business trips in your own car; anything above the standard rate is taxed as salary
• Christmas gifts up to a limit
• The wellness allowance, friskvårdsbidrag, up to an annual limit

What you never see deducted is the employer contribution (arbetsgivaravgift). Your employer pays roughly a third on top of your gross pay and benefit values. That is its cost, not yours.

Checking it

1. Header: pay period, payment date, and your tax basis: table and column, a percentage, jämkning or SINK.
2. Gross and absence lines: do overtime and deductions match your hours and absences?
3. Holiday: supplement per paid day and the remaining paid-day balance.
4. Benefits: any förmånsvärde you didn’t expect?
5. Tax: the right table on salary, one-off tax on irregular sums.
6. Totals: every employer reports each employee’s pay and tax to Skatteverket monthly. Compare your year-to-date figures with Skatteverket’s Mina sidor.
7. Errors: raise them with payroll in writing, and with your union if you have one. Keep every slip until the year’s final tax is settled.

Practical information

FAQ

What do tabell and kolumn mean on my Swedish payslip?

They show how your tax was calculated. The table number, from 29 to 42, follows the combined municipal tax and fee rate where you were registered on 1 November last year. The column follows your age and income type: column 1 is ordinary salary for people under 66. Both come from your A-tax decision, which the employer gets from Skatteverket or from you.

Why was my holiday compensation taxed so heavily?

Because it is a one-off sum, not regular salary. Holiday compensation, bonuses and retroactive pay are taxed by a separate one-off table, as a percentage set by your expected annual pay from your main employer. On high annual pay that percentage is over half. Final tax is settled in your tax return, so too much withheld comes back as a refund.

What is semestertillägg on my payslip?

It is the holiday supplement. Under the Annual Leave Act’s same-salary rule your normal monthly salary keeps coming while you are on leave, and you also get 0.43% of your monthly salary for each paid holiday day. A collective agreement may set other rules. Hourly and variable earners instead get 12% of their pay as holiday pay.

Why is a förmån added to my pay when I never got the money?

Because a benefit counts as taxable pay. Free meals, a company car, fuel or private use of other employer-paid things have a taxable value, the förmånsvärde, which is added to your tax base without adding cash. That raises your tax. If you pay something back by net deduction, the benefit value is reduced; a gross deduction does not reduce it.

What is karensavdrag on my payslip?

It is the sick-pay deduction. For the first 14 days of illness your employer pays sick pay of 80% of lost pay, and once per sick period it deducts a karensavdrag of 20% of an average week’s sick pay. For a five-day week that is roughly one day’s sick pay. After ten deductions in twelve months, no more are taken.

Is employer tax deducted from my Swedish salary?

No. The employer contribution, arbetsgivaravgift, is paid by the employer on top of your gross pay and benefit values, and is never deducted from you. The tax line on your payslip is only the preliminary income tax withheld from your pay. The contribution is the employer’s cost, which is one reason a Swedish job costs the employer about a third more than the salary.

Can my employer deduct money I owe them from my salary?

Only within limits set by law. Your employer may offset its own claim against your pay with your consent, for a clear and due debt under an agreement that allows offsetting, or for damage you caused deliberately at work. It may never take what you need to support yourself and your family, and tax is always withheld first.

Why does my second job take 30% tax?

Because pay that is not your main income is taxed at a flat 30%, whatever the amount. If your total income is high, 30% may be too little and leave residual tax; if it is low, too much. You can ask Skatteverket for jämkning, which sets the right percentage for your main payer, or ask an employer to withhold extra.

Related guides

• Payday on the 25th — when the money on this slip actually arrives
• Filing a Swedish tax return as a newcomer — where wrong withholding is settled
• Five weeks off: annual leave in Sweden — the rights behind the holiday lines
• Sick leave in Sweden — reporting, doctor’s notes and day 15
• SINK for non-residents — the flat tax for stays of six months or less

Facts verified 2026-10-15. Sources: Sveriges riksdag (Skatteförfarandelag 2011:1244, Semesterlag 1977:480, Lag 1991:1047 om sjuklön, Lag 1970:215 om arbetsgivares kvittningsrätt, Lag 1982:80), Skatteverket and FAR — full register in this topic’s source file. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Found something outdated? Tell us and we’ll fix it.