Sweden

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Business Environment

Business Practices

General information: Official portal, very useful for knowing how to do business in Sweden.
Advice for business relations
Opening hours and days: Saturday and Sunday closed, or just Saturday afternoon and Sunday for shops. All-day opening.

Public holidays

New Year's Day	1 January
Epiphany	6 January
Easter Monday	March/April
Good Friday	the Friday before Easter
Labor Day	1 May
Ascension Day	the sixth Thursday after Easter
National Day	6 June
Saint John's Day	a Saturday between 19 and 29 June
All Saints	1st Saturday of November
Christmas	24, 25 and 26 December

Holiday compensation: When a public holiday falls on a Thursday, most Swedish people take the Friday off.

Periods when companies usually close

Summer holidays

July

Accounting Rules

Tax year: The tax year begins on 1 January and finishes on 31 December of the same year.
Accounting standards: Swedish accounting standards conform to IAS standards. For further information, click here.
Accounting regulation bodies: BFN, Bokföringsnämnden
Accounting reports: The annual reporting must contain a profit and loss account, a balance sheet, notes and an annual report. Large companies and companies listed on the stock exchange must also provide a statement of source and application of funds.
Swedish accounting mostly conforms to the principles set out in the texts of the 4th Directive. However, some national particularities remain; some of them are allowed by the 4th Directive:
- the presentation of certain items (subscribed capital not paid up, equalization accounts, set-up costs, intangible assets, footnotes) corresponds to the specifics of the country
- it is the same for the distinction between distributable and non-distributable equity capital, and the separation into three parts of operating activities: production, distribution and administration.
On the other hand, some of them are not, as for example:
- un-taxed reserves
- depreciation allowances and appropriations to the reserve
- elements affecting accounting
- exceptional operations.
Publication requirements: All joint-stock companies have to send a copy of their annual report to the legal authorities of the country.
Professional accountancy bodies: Foreningen Auktoriserade Revisorer
Bokforingsnamanden
Svenska Revisorsamfundet
Certification and auditing: FAR SRS (professional institute for authorized public accountants and approved public accountants).
Accounting news: International Accounting news

Tax Rates

Consumption taxes

Nature of the tax: MOMS (mervärdesskart) - Value Added Tax (VAT).
Tax rate: 25% on most goods and services.
Reduced tax rate: Reduced rate of 12%: foodstuffs, hotel services, camp sites and imports of artworks.
Lowest rate of 6%: newspapers, passenger transport services and cultural events.
Other consumption taxes: Tax on energy products, several sorts of stamp duty (the highest is 1.5% and is applicable to real estate transactions), tax on the sale of shares and securities (30%), vehicle tax (it varies according to the weight of the vehicle and is higher for diesel cars), excise tax (very high, levied on alcohol and tobacco).

Corporate taxes

Company tax: 26.3%
Tax rate for foreign companies: Resident companies are taxed on their global income while foreign companies are taxed on the profits they make in Sweden.
Capital gains taxation: Taxable profit: 16.5%
Main allowable deductions and tax credit: There is no professional tax.
Dividends paid to resident companies: with-holding tax of 30% if the shares are registered, giving a right to a tax credit chargeable to income tax according to a specific rate of 30%.
The rate applicable to profits distributed or not is a single rate of 25%; solidarity tax of 5.5% of the tax rate is added i.e. 26.37%. Click here.
A reduction of 25% for three years on the taxable total of salaries paid by Swedish companies (or stable establishments in Sweden of foreign companies) to people of other nationalities than Swedish and non-resident in Sweden.
Other corporate taxes: Property taxes: 0.5% on the value of commercial premises, 1% on the value of industrial properties.

Individual taxes

Tax rate

Individuals pay both a municipal tax which rate is between 28.89% and 34.17% + the national income tax.	The overall rate of income tax in Sweden is between 28.89% and 59.17%. For national income tax, the rate is between 0% and 25%.
SEK 0 to 380,200	0%
SEK 380,200 to 538,800	20%
SEK 538,800 and above	25%

Allowable deductions and tax credit: Deductions for business travel expenses, rise in cost of living (rise in rent for example).
Special expatriate tax regime: Tax reductions for certain expatriate management personnel (limited duration of 5 years). Flat rate reduction of 25%. This measure is only possible during the first three years of work and is reserved exclusively for people who do not have Swedish nationality.

Double taxation treaties

Countries with whom a double taxation treaty have been signed: List of countries having a non double taxation treaty with Sweden. (See page 17)
Whithholding taxes: Dividends: 30%, Royalties:28%. Sweden does not levy a withholding tax on interest.

Sources of fiscal information

Tax Authorities: Swedish fiscal administration
Other domestic resources: Information about taxes

Intellectual Property

National organizations: The organization responsible for the protection of intellectual property in Sweden is the Swedish Patent and Registration Office. For copyright, it is the Copyright bureau. Patents are protected for an annual fee.
Regional organizations: For the protection of patents: the European Patent Office
Governing trade marks, designs and models: the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market
International membership: Member of the WIPO
Signatory to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property
Membership to the TRIPS agreement - Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

National regulation and international agreements

Type of property and law	Validity	International agreements signed
Patent Patent Act	20 years	Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Strasbourg agreement concerning the International Patent Classification
Trademark Trademarks Act	5 years	Trademark law treaty Nice agreement Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement
Design
Copyright The Swedish Copyright Legislation	70 years after the death of the author	Berne convention Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against unauthorized duplication of their phonograms Rome convention for the protection of performers, producers of phonograms and Broadcasting organizations WIPO copyright treaty WIPO performances and Phonograms treaty
Industrial Models Industrial Designs	20 years

Legal Framework

Independence of justice: Judicial power in Sweden is totally independent.
Equal treatment of nationals and foreigners: Foreign nationals can have an impartial trial.
The language of justice: Swedish is the language of justice, but English is commonly used.
Recourse to an interpreter: Yes
Sources of the law and legal similarities: The legal system is based on a system of civil law influenced by common law. The main law is the Constitution of 1974. As Sweden belongs to the European Union, its national law must submit to the conditions of Community legislation.
Checking national laws online: Laws
Lexadin

Legal research on the web: Sweden

Standards

National standards organizations: Swedish Standards Institute(Standardiseringen i Sverige)
Swedish organization for telecommunications standards
Swedish committee for electrotechnical standards
Integration in the international standards network: Member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Member of the International Electrotechnical Commission(IEC)
Member of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
Member of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
Classification of standards: ISO and IEC standards, as well as ASTM, DIN, BSI, ASME, SAE, IEEE, API, ANSI, UL, MIL
For further information, consult the SIS website.
Online consultation of standards: SIS catalog
SEK catalog
ISO catalog
IEC catalog
Certification organizations: Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment
SP Swedish institute for technical research
SEMKO-DEKRA (Quality and environmental certification).

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