SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

TAXES

How to check whether you are due a Danish tax refund

The Danish Tax Agency has now published annual returns for taxpayers in the country.

How to check whether you are due a Danish tax refund
Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Accessing the annual tax return (årsopgørelse in Danish) is a yearly event for taxpayers in the Scandinavian country.

Around 2.6 million people visited the tax agency’s website during the first two days after returns began publishing on Friday, the authority said via Twitter. The figure relates to individual clicks and not necessarily 2.6 million different people.

“There has been a little more interest than there was last year. There was a lot of interest on Friday, but during the weekend people were able to log in quickly,” Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) deputy director Karoline Klaksvig told Ritzau.

Users of the agency’s online platform are able to see whether they have paid too much tax or too little, and accordingly, whether they are due a return or have to pay more.

Within a set deadline, taxpayers can also edit their tax information, such as by changing income or tax exemption information.

Around three out of four taxpayers in Denmark get refunds after the yearly annual return (årsopgørelse), according to news agency Ritzau.

The amount refunded varies from person to person, but last year saw 3.4 million people paid an average refund of 4,700 kroner.

However, around one million people paid an average of 6,000 kroner back to tax after their returns had been completed.

You can log in to see your annual return via the Danish Tax Authority (SKAT) website here.

The annual return shows your income, deductions and what you have paid in taxes.

The annual statement is released annually in March, when you can see if you are owed money back or if you paid too little in taxes during the preceding year. In most cases, rebates are automatically deposit it into your bank account.

In 2020, you can view and correct your 2019 annual statement from March 9th. The deadline for reporting corrections to the annual report is May 1st 2020.

Most of the information in the annual statement is provided automatically by your employer or bank. If the information is correct, you do not need to take any further action.

However, you may need to enter some things into the report yourself, depending on your income type and whether you are entitled to any deductions.

These include deductions for home improvements (håndværkerfradrag), transport (kørselsfradrag), child support (børnebidrag) and work clothing and equipment. You also need to enter details of income from shareholdings and properties you own.

More in-depth detail on how these deductions and declarations work can be found on the Tax Agency website (in Danish) with some detail also provided on the website’s English language version.

The Danish Tax Agency can be contact via telephone in case of queries regarding your annual return. The telephone number to contact the agency is 7222 2828.

“We have a strong expectation that many people will call us to talk about their tax returns,” Klaksvig told Ritzau.

Do you have any questions or anything you’d like us to report, explain or describe in more detail about tax in Denmark? Let us know – we’d like to read your suggestions and will try to answer your questions.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TAXES

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark’s employment allowance?

Denmark's government may soon announce changes to its tax reform plans, which will give all wage earners a bigger employment allowance. What is this and how will it affect foreigners' earnings?

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark's employment allowance?

What is the employment allowance? 

The Beskæftigelsesfradraget (from beskæftigelse, meaning employment, and fradrag, meaning rebate) was brought in by the centre-right Liberal Party back in 2004, the idea being that it would incentivise people to get off welfare and into a job.

Everyone whose employer pays Denmark’s 8 percent AM-bidrag, or arbejdsmarkedsbidrag, automatically receives beskæftigelsesfradraget. Unlike with some of Denmark’s tax rebates, there is no need to apply. The Danish Tax Agency simply exempts the first portion of your earnings from income taxes. 

In 2022, beskæftigelsesfradraget was set at 10.65 percent of income with a maximum rebate of 44,800 kroner. 

How did the government agree to change the employment allowance in its coalition deal? 

In Responsibility for Denmark, the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderate Party, the new government said it would set aside 5 billion kroner for tax reforms.

Of this, 4 billion kroner was earmarked for increasing the employment allowance, with a further 0.3 billion going towards increasing an additional employment allowance for single parents.

According to the public broadcaster DR, the expectation was that this would increase the standard employment  allowance to 12.75 percent up to a maximum rebate of 53,600 kroner. 

How might this be further increased, according to Børsen? 

According to a report in the Børsen newspaper, the government now plans to set aside a further 1.75 billion kroner for tax reforms, of which nearly half — about 800 million kroner — will go towards a further increase to the employment allowance. 

The Danish Chamber of Commerce earlier this month released an analysis in which it argued that by raising removing all limits on the rebate for single parents and raising the maximum rebate for everone else by 20,300 kroner, the government could increase the labour supply by 4,850 people, more than double the 1,500 envisaged in the government agreement. 

According to the Børsen, the government estimates that its new extended allowance will increase the labour supply by 5,150 people.  

SHOW COMMENTS