Key facts at a glance
SINK flat rate (2026)
22.5%
DK residents working in SE
Öresund commuters
~17,000
Sweden → Denmark, per year
Danish personfradrag
54,100 kr
2026, before bundskat/kommuneskat
The Öresund Bridge turned Malmö and Copenhagen into one commuting labor market, and roughly 17,000 people make that crossing from Sweden into Denmark for work each year. Whichever direction you commute, the tax question is genuinely different from a standard Sweden-vs-elsewhere comparison: at lower and middle incomes Sweden keeps more of an equivalent salary, by roughly 19,000-20,500 kr a year at the levels checked below, but at higher incomes Denmark's 2026-reformed top-tax system closes the gap and can edge ahead.
Below, we cover SINK, the flat tax that applies to the smaller reverse flow of Danish residents working in Sweden, what the 2024 revised Öresund Agreement actually changed for remote work, and a worked comparison at three income levels, converted at an illustrative SEK/DKK rate.
See your own Swedish take-home numbers, broken down in full.
Open the Sweden calculatorSINK: the flat tax for the reverse commute
SINK, särskild inkomstskatt för utomlands bosatta, is a flat 22.5% tax for 2026 on Swedish-source salary paid to people who live outside Sweden, most relevantly for Öresund commuters, roughly 1,400 people who live in Denmark and commute to work in Sweden each year. It's a deliberately simple mechanism: one flat rate, no deductions, no Swedish tax return, chosen specifically because filing a full Swedish return for someone who lives elsewhere would be disproportionate admin for both the taxpayer and Skatteverket.
The much larger flow runs the other way, Swedish residents commuting to work in Denmark, and SINK doesn't apply to them at all. They're taxed under ordinary Danish rules, the AM-bidrag, bundskat, kommuneskat, and top-tax stack covered below, because taxation follows where the work is performed and where the employer sits, not the commuter's country of residence.
The 2024 revised Öresund Agreement: remote work got easier
Before the 2024 revision, an Öresund commuter risked losing the agreement's tax treatment if they worked from home in Sweden too many days in a given period, a rule written for a pre-hybrid-work world that created real risk for anyone with a flexible arrangement. The revised agreement relaxed those remote-work constraints, extended coverage to public-sector employees alongside private-sector ones (the original agreement leaned private-sector), and aligned how pension income is taxed for people who've worked across both countries over their career.
None of this changes the core rule that Denmark taxes salary earned working in Denmark, it changes how much flexibility a commuter has around where they physically sit on a given day without jeopardizing that tax treatment, which matters more now than it did before hybrid work became standard.
Net pay compared: Denmark vs an SEK-equivalent Swedish salary
Danish net uses AM-bidrag (8%), bundskat (12.01%), the 2026 national-average kommuneskat (25.05%), the 54,100 kr personfradrag, and the reformed 2026 mellemskat/topskat tiers above 641,200 kr and 777,900 kr. Swedish net uses the same national-average kommunalskatt/statlig model as the rest of this site. Converted at an illustrative rate of 1 DKK ≈ 1.47 SEK; the real rate moves daily.
| DKK gross | DK net | DK eff. | SEK-equiv gross | SE net | SE eff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 350,000 kr | 222,716 kr | 36.4% | 514,710 kr | 348,047 kr | 32.4% |
| 550,000 kr | 338,526 kr | 38.4% | 808,830 kr | 517,245 kr | 36.1% |
| 900,000 kr | 523,425 kr | 41.8% | 1,323,540 kr | 762,350 kr | 42.4% |
At the two lower levels, Sweden keeps roughly 19,000-20,500 kr more (SEK-equivalent) a year. At the highest level shown, Denmark edges ahead by roughly 7,400 kr (SEK-equivalent), a genuine crossover driven by Denmark's reformed 2026 top-tax tiers landing lower than Sweden's flat 20% statlig inkomstskatt at that income.
What this comparison leaves out
On the Danish side: kirkeskat (an optional, municipality-set church tax), ATP pension contributions, and the skatteloft (tax ceiling) that caps combined marginal rates below what an uncapped stack of bundskat, kommuneskat, and top-tax tiers would otherwise reach. On the Swedish side: grundavdrag and jobbskatteavdrag, both of which would lower the Swedish figures shown here somewhat, consistent with every other simplified Swedish model on this site.
The SEK/DKK exchange rate used is illustrative and fixed for this comparison; the real rate moves daily, and anyone planning an actual cross-border move should get exact figures from Skatteverket, SKAT, or an accountant familiar with the Öresund Agreement.
Also comparing Sweden to the UK?
See our companion piece on UK vs Sweden take-home pay for a comparison against a market with a very different, banded income tax structure, and how the retained percentages stack up against Denmark's.
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Frequently asked questions
If I live in Sweden and commute to work in Denmark, which country taxes my salary?
Denmark, in almost all cases, because you're taxed where the work is physically performed and where your employer is based. The Öresund Agreement between Sweden and Denmark exists specifically to manage this cross-border flow (roughly 17,000 people commute from Sweden into Denmark for work each year), covering things like which country collects social insurance contributions and how remote-work days are treated, rather than shifting the core income tax liability to Sweden.
What is SINK tax, and does it apply to me?
SINK (särskild inkomstskatt för utomlands bosatta) is a flat 22.5% tax for 2026 on Swedish-source salary earned by people who live outside Sweden, most relevantly here, people who live in Denmark but commute to work in Sweden (a smaller flow, roughly 1,400 people a year). It's a genuinely different mechanism from kommunalskatt and statlig inkomstskatt: a single flat rate, no deductions, and no Swedish tax return required. If you live in Sweden and work in Denmark, SINK doesn't apply to you, you're taxed under Danish rules instead.
What changed with the 2024 revised Öresund Agreement?
The revision, which took effect in 2024, made remote-work arrangements meaningfully more flexible for Öresund commuters and extended the agreement's coverage to public-sector employees alongside private-sector ones, while also aligning how pension income is taxed for cross-border workers. Before the revision, commuters risked losing Öresund tax treaty benefits if they worked from home in Sweden too many days a week, a rule that badly fit the rise of hybrid work; the update relaxed that constraint.
How does Danish income tax actually break down?
Four layers stack together: AM-bidrag (labour market tax), a flat 8% taken off gross salary first; bundskat (base tax), 12.01% for 2026; kommuneskat (municipal tax), averaging 25.05% nationally but ranging roughly 23.4%-26.3% by municipality; and, for higher earners, a reformed three-tier top-tax system introduced for 2026 (mellemskat and two topskat tiers) replacing the old single top bracket. A personfradrag (personal allowance) of 54,100 kr for 2026 is deducted before bundskat and kommuneskat apply.
Does Sweden or Denmark actually keep more of your salary?
It depends on income level, and the gap is narrower than the UK-vs-Sweden comparison on this site. At lower-to-mid salaries (roughly 350,000-550,000 kr equivalent), Sweden's flat kommunalskatt keeps more net income than Denmark's stacked AM-bidrag, bundskat, and kommuneskat, worth about 19,000-20,500 kr a year at these levels. At higher salaries, the gap narrows and can flip: at a 900,000 kr SEK-equivalent, Denmark's 2026-reformed top-tax structure edges ahead of Sweden's flat 20% statlig inkomstskatt above the brytpunkt, by a modest margin.
Is this comparison exact enough to plan a real cross-border move around?
No, treat it as directional. It omits Danish church tax (kirkeskat, optional and municipality-set), ATP pension contributions, the Danish skatteloft (tax ceiling) that caps combined marginal rates, and Sweden's grundavdrag and jobbskatteavdrag, all of which shift the real numbers somewhat. It also uses a single illustrative SEK/DKK exchange rate that moves day to day. Anyone actually planning an Öresund commute should get a specific calculation from Skatteverket, SKAT (the Danish tax agency), or an accountant familiar with the Öresund Agreement.