Employer of Record Sweden
Employer of Record Sweden lets you employ someone in Sweden without registering an aktiebolag. As your employer of record, EOR Sweden takes the legal employer role: it signs the LAS-based contract, runs payroll, withholds tax by Skatteverket’s tables and pays the 31.42% employer contributions.
Get costingsClient portal
Swedish hires set up quickly and on the right terms
The portal holds the paperwork, and specialists in Swedish employment do the checking. You see each step, each payslip and each return filed with Skatteverket.
- Follow each onboarding step, from signed contract to the first payslip
- Approve the payroll run before the AGI deadline
- Log sick days, semester and salary changes as they happen
- Download payslips and AGI copies whenever an auditor asks
Why hire this way
How can you employ in Sweden with no company there?
We sign the contract as employer of record and hold the employer duties, while you direct the daily work. Contributions are the main cost lever: the standard 31.42% falls to 20.81% on monthly pay up to SEK 25,000 for staff born 2003 to 2007 (a temporary rule until 30 September 2027), and to 10.21% once an employee turns 67.
As employer of record, EOR Sweden already runs a payroll registered with Skatteverket, so your hire joins an existing payroll. Each month it files the AGI return per employee; it reports sick periods passing day 14 to Försäkringskassan; and when someone leaves it pays semesterersättning for unused leave and issues the LAS notice letter.
Employment costs
What will a Swedish salary cost you in 2026?
Figures below use Skatteverket’s 2026 rates, in force for pay from 1 January 2026, plus one collective-agreement pension shown as an assumption.
Employer contributions
Arbetsgivaravgifter (employer social contributions) are 31.42% of gross pay and taxable benefits in 2026, with no ceiling. The rate is the sum of seven parts; the largest are the general payroll levy (12.62%) and the old-age pension charge (10.21%). Two reduced rates exist: 20.81% for staff born 2003 to 2007, limited to the first SEK 25,000 of monthly salary (April 2026 to September 2027), and 10.21% for people aged 67 or over. There is no separate workers’ compensation premium or regional payroll tax.
Employee deductions
The employer withholds preliminary tax every month; the employee settles the final amount in spring.
- Income tax: municipal and regional tax averages 32.38% in 2026 (Stockholm 30.55% plus a 0.07% burial fee). A 20% state tax applies only to taxable income over SEK 643,000, a gross salary of about SEK 660,400.
- Employee contributions: the allmän pensionsavgift is 7% of pay, capped at SEK 47,100 in 2026, and a tax credit of the same size cancels it, so it costs the employee nothing net. A public service fee of 1% (maximum SEK 1,184) is collected with the tax.
Worked example
SEK 50,000 a month in Stockholm
Employer cost/year
SEK 822,070
SEK 600,000 salary plus 31.42% contributions (SEK 788,520), plus ITP1 at 4.5% and its 24.26% pension tax.
Monthly take-home
SEK 39,280
SEK 471,354 a year after final 2026 tax of SEK 128,646, an effective rate of 21.44%.
Assumptions: employee aged 30, living in Stockholm all of 2026, not a Church of Sweden member, no other income or benefits. ITP1 applies only if the employer is bound by a white-collar agreement. The statutory holiday supplement (semestertillägg) would add SEK 7,064. Table 31 withholds SEK 11,000 a month, so a refund of about SEK 3,354 follows.
Salary, contributions, any pension cost and our fee from USD 560 per employee (close to SEK 5,550, converted on 24 September 2026 ECB figures) arrive on one invoice monthly. We then file the AGI and pay Skatteverket on the 12th after payday, or the 17th in January and August, the deadline for employers with turnover up to SEK 40 million.
The EOR process
What happens before a Swedish hire starts, and after?
Most of the work comes before day one; after that, the same monthly cycle repeats.
Because the employer registration with Skatteverket is already in place, no SKV 4620 filing is needed for your hire. The clock that matters is LAS § 6 c: the key terms, such as workplace, job, pay, hours, holiday, notice and the collective agreement that applies, must be in writing by the 7th calendar day of work, and the rest within one month.
We draft the contract from your offer. Permanent employment (tillsvidareanställning) is the default under LAS § 4, with probation of up to 6 months. A fixed term is limited to the forms LAS § 5 allows, and a special fixed-term post turns permanent after more than 12 months within 5 years. Where a collective agreement applies, its pay, hours and pension terms go into the contract too.
Monthly, preliminary tax is withheld using the skattetabell for the employee’s municipality; Stockholm uses table 31. We then file the arbetsgivardeklaration på individnivå (AGI), one line per employee, and pays tax and contributions, with a zero return in months without pay. Pension costs carry särskild löneskatt of 24.26%, declared on Inkomstdeklaration 2. The late-filing fee for an AGI is SEK 625.
Non-EU hires need an arbetstillstånd (work permit). Since 1 June 2026 pay must reach 90% of the median wage; with the median set at SEK 38,300 on 16 June 2026, that is SEK 34,470 monthly. The job is first advertised for 10 days, then we apply via Migrationsverket’s employer e-service.
Migrationsverket asks staffing employers to show 3 months of guaranteed pay, and in sectors with a reporting duty, worse terms must be reported within a month.
We set up salaried roles such as engineering, sales, finance and customer support. In Sweden the collective agreement often shapes the terms more than statute: pay floors, ITP1 pension, insurances and sometimes a higher holiday supplement all come from it, and blue-collar agreements differ from white-collar ones.
Onboarding
Skip the Bolagsverket queue, not the checks
An aktiebolag needs share capital, a bank certificate, Bolagsverket registration and Skatteverket approval before payroll. Through us, the contract is the first step.
Brief us on the role
Salary, start date, hours and duties, so we can check the likely collective agreement.
Cost sheet in SEK
Gross pay, 31.42% contributions, any ITP1 premium and our fee, laid out line by line.
Contract under LAS
Written terms signed and delivered well within the 7-day limit that LAS § 6 c sets.
Permit, if needed
For non-EU staff, the Migrationsverket application follows the 10-day advert.
Payroll details in
Personal identity number, bank details and tax table recorded before the first pay run.
First payslip
Salary paid, then the first AGI filed with Skatteverket by the 12th.
One payroll lead, by name
One payroll lead knows your Swedish staff by name
The same person answers your questions, checks every pay run against the contract and the collective agreement, and warns you before a change triggers a new rule.
Your contactAB or employer of record
Should you form a Swedish aktiebolag or employ through us?
You can register an aktiebolag (AB), Sweden’s private limited company, and employ directly, or let us employ for you as employer of record. At one or two hires the AB is not expensive to form; the difference is in what follows.
Forming your own aktiebolag
You pay in share capital, obtain a bank certificate, adopt the stiftelseurkund and bolagsordning, then register the company and its beneficial owner at Bolagsverket through verksamt.se. A board of one member plus an alternate is needed.
The fees are low: SEK 2,400 by e-service plus SEK 250 for the beneficial-owner register, and Skatteverket registrations are free. Processing time varies, so check Bolagsverket’s current figure. The larger costs come after formation, in payroll, accounting and HR.
- Monthly AGI filing and payment
- Annual accounts and, where required, an auditor
- Tax-table withholding for every employee
- Union negotiation duties under MBL if staff join a union
- Collective-agreement terms, pension and insurance to arrange
Employing via an employer of record
We employ your hire on our existing payroll and Skatteverket registration. You approve pay each month and pay one invoice. If you later form an AB, the employee can move across to it, and we help with the handover.
- No company to register or close
- Payroll and AGI filed by us
- Contract drafted to LAS and the agreement
- Sick pay and leave tracked every month
- Flat monthly fee per employee
Which option fits your timeline?
Employ through us
You are testing the Swedish market, hiring your first one to five people, or want a start date earlier than an AB registration and new payroll would allow. It also suits a permit case, since the application needs an employer with an organisationsnummer already in place. You keep control of the work while we carry the employer paperwork.
Form your own aktiebolag
You plan a sizeable Swedish team, will sell locally and need to invoice as a Swedish company, or want Swedish staff to sit inside your own group structure. At that point the SEK 25,000 capital and yearly accounts are a small cost against a long-term operation, and payroll can move in-house.
Not sure yet? Book a short call and we will compare both routes against your hiring plan, with Swedish figures for each.
Employee entitlements
Which rights does every Swedish employee start with?
Semesterlagen, föräldraledighetslagen and LAS set the statutory minimum; Försäkringskassan pays sickness and parental benefits after the employer’s share. Collective agreements often add more on top.
Annual leave
Semesterlagen grants 25 days of semester, counted in days, not weeks. The leave year runs 1 April to 31 March unless agreed otherwise. Days above 20 can be saved for up to 5 years; unused days are paid out on leaving.
Public holidays
Sweden has 13 named public holidays in 2026, of which 4 fall on a Saturday. Midsummer Eve, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are not on the statutory list, though agreements often make them days off.
Sick pay
Sick pay in Sweden starts with the employer. Sjuklön covers days 1 to 14 of each spell at 80% of normal earnings, minus one karensavdrag set at a fifth of the average week’s sick pay. From the eighth day the employee must show a medical certificate. If the spell lasts beyond two weeks, Försäkringskassan is notified on day 15 and takes over with sjukpenning of about 80%, capped at SEK 1,259 per day for 2026. Employers lost the general state refund for heavy sick-pay bills in mid-2024; särskilt högriskskydd still exists for specific named employees.
Leave around a birth
The mother may take 7 weeks before and 7 after the birth, and 2 weeks are compulsory. The other parent gets 10 days of temporary parental benefit, usable within 60 days of the child coming home.
Parental benefit
Parents share 480 days of föräldrapenning, 90 reserved for each. For 390 of them the daily rate reaches at most SEK 1,259 in 2026. Försäkringskassan pays it, not the employer.
Reduced hours
Parents can cut working time by up to a quarter until the child turns 8 or finishes year 2 of school. They may also take leave to care for a sick child (VAB). Leave needs 2 months’ notice, and worse treatment because of leave is prohibited.
How we keep entitlements accurate
Every absence you log feeds the payroll run: sick days trigger the karensavdrag and the day-15 report, semester balances roll forward each 1 April, and saved days are tracked against their 5-year limit. Where a collective agreement adds to the statute, we apply the agreement’s figure and show it on the payslip.
Our services
Services in Sweden
Employer of Record Sweden covers the employer’s side of a Swedish hire: the contract, payroll and tax, HR questions under LAS, and the pension and insurance a collective agreement brings, for a monthly fee per head plus a usual set-up fee.
All services ›Employing staff with no Swedish company
We sign the employment contract and hold the employer duties, which lets you hire ahead of setting up an aktiebolag, or with none at all.
Payroll, tax and AGI returns
Pay calculated to the skattetabell, contributions at the correct rate for each age group, and the AGI filed and paid to Skatteverket every month.
HR support under LAS
Probation, fixed-term limits, notice periods from 1 to 6 months, and the MBL steps before any redundancy, explained before you act and documented when you do.
Pension, insurance and agreements
ITP1 or the relevant agreement pension, the insurances that come with it, and any expert tax relief application to Forskarskattenämnden.
Employing in Sweden
Plain answers onsemester and leave|in Sweden
Our Employing in Sweden guide explains the rules behind a Swedish employment contract, from the 2026 work-permit salary rule to holiday pay and collective agreements, with sources from Skatteverket, riksdagen.se and Migrationsverket.
Read the Swedish employer guide ›Our approach
What changes when you work with EOR Sweden?
We keep statutory costs and collective-agreement costs on separate lines, so you see which is law and which is agreement. One named payroll lead handles your account, the fee does not move with the salary per employee a month, and each figure we quote cites its Swedish source.
Speak with usAsked before a call
No. As your employer of record in Sweden, we employ the person, so no AB is needed. The contract can be issued as soon as terms are agreed, and the first salary follows the normal monthly payroll cycle.
No Swedish statute names employer of record arrangements; the nearest is lag 2012:854 on hiring out workers. The employee must get pay, hours and holiday at least equal to a direct hire's. After over 24 months in one unit within 36, you must offer a permanent job or pay 2 months' wages. A client bound by a collective agreement also negotiates with the union first (MBL § 38).
Our service covers work done in Sweden on Swedish payroll. A person living abroad who works here is normally taxed under SINK, which takes 22.5% of their Swedish salary as final tax in 2026. For staff working from other countries, ask us on a call and we will say plainly what we can do.
A monthly charge from USD 560 per employee, roughly SEK 5,550 using the ECB rate for 24 September 2026, covers the employment contract, payroll, AGI filing, leave and sick-pay tracking, and HR advice. Salary, the 31.42% contributions and any agreement pension are passed through at cost on the same invoice. A one-off set-up fee normally applies at the outset, and the quote gives the amount.
Planning your first Swedish hire?
Send the job title, planned SEK salary and start date, and we will return a cost sheet built on 2026 Swedish rates.
Staff in Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö or anywhere else in Sweden can be employed by us as employer of record.
Price my Swedish role
Get started
Plan your Swedish hire with us
Tell us about the role on a short call and we will map out contract, cost and timing.