Employing in Sweden: fourteen questions to settle before your first hire starts

1

What routes exist to employ someone in Sweden?

There are two common routes. You can register an aktiebolag (limited company) with Bolagsverket, register it as an employer with Skatteverket on form SKV 4620 and run Swedish payroll in-house. The alternative is an employer of record: the EOR becomes the legal employer, issues the contract, withholds tax and files the monthly AGI return, while you direct the daily work. A foreign employer without a permanent establishment can also pay salary directly, but must then withhold 30% tax itself.

2

What does a SEK 50,000-a-month employee in Stockholm cost?

On SEK 50,000 a month, the statutory employer cost in 2026 is SEK 788,520 a year: SEK 600,000 gross plus 31.42% arbetsgivaravgifter. Adding ITP1 pension at 4.5% and the 24.26% special payroll tax on it gives SEK 822,070.

The employee, aged 30 and outside the Church of Sweden, takes home SEK 471,354 a year, about SEK 39,280 a month, after SEK 128,646 of final tax and fees. The EOR fee from USD 560 per employee per month comes on top.

3

How soon can a new hire in Sweden start work?

The start date usually depends on the candidate’s current job rather than on paperwork. An employee in Sweden must give at least one month’s notice under LAS § 11, and many resign only once a signed offer is in hand. With an EOR, the employer of record can issue the contract as soon as terms are agreed, so no company registration holds things up. Candidates from outside the EU/EEA also need a work permit from Migrationsverket first.

4

Must you register a Swedish company before hiring?

No. An employer of record lets you hire without an aktiebolag of your own: the employer of record is the legal employer and holds the employer registration with Skatteverket. If you prefer your own AB, you need share capital of at least SEK 25,000, a board with one member and one alternate, and registration at Bolagsverket through verksamt.se for SEK 2,400 by e-service, followed by employer registration on SKV 4620. Many companies start with an EOR and form an AB once the Swedish team grows.

5

Can you engage the person as a contractor instead?

Only if the relationship is genuinely independent. A contractor approved for F-skatt invoices you, and you withhold no tax and pay no arbetsgivaravgifter, provided the approval is cited in writing. Swedish labour law looks at the overall reality: personal work duty, who directs the work, continuity, who bears the costs and economic dependence. Someone working full time under your direction for months is likely an employee, whatever the contract says. Where that is obvious, the payer must tell Skatteverket, and back contributions plus skattetillägg can follow.

6

Which terms must Swedish staff receive in writing?

Under LAS § 6 c, the employer must give key terms in writing no later than the 7th calendar day after work starts, and the rest within one month. The information covers the parties, workplace, job, form of employment, pay, working hours, holiday, notice and any collective agreement that applies. Permanent employment (tillsvidareanställning) is the default, probation (provanställning) can last up to 6 months, and fixed-term work is limited to a few defined forms.

7

Which taxes and contributions are due?

The employer pays arbetsgivaravgifter of 31.42% on gross pay in 2026, with no ceiling (Skatteverket). A reduced 20.81% rate covers staff born 2003–2007 on the first SEK 25,000 of monthly pay, running to the end of September 2027, and staff aged 67 or over carry only 10.21%. From the employee’s pay, the employer withholds preliminary tax using Skatteverket’s tax tables. In Stockholm municipal tax is 30.55%, and 20% state tax applies above taxable income of SEK 643,000. Both are reported monthly on the AGI return.

8

Who sets pay floors if Sweden has no minimum?

No law sets a national minimum wage in Sweden. Pay floors come from collective agreements (kollektivavtal), and about 300 of roughly 650 central agreements contain minimum pay levels, according to Medlingsinstitutet. Before an offer goes out, check which agreement covers the role and set the salary at or above the floor it names for that job and level of experience.

9

What leave does semesterlagen give, and what else applies?

Semesterlagen gives 25 days of paid holiday a year, with a semestertillägg of 0.43% of monthly pay for each day taken under the same-salary rule. Sweden has 13 public holidays in 2026, four of them on a Saturday. Parents share 480 days of föräldrapenning per child, paid by Försäkringskassan rather than the employer, with 390 of those days at up to SEK 1,259 a day. Two weeks of maternity leave around the birth are compulsory.

10

Who covers sick days?

The employer pays sjuklön of 80% of pay for days 1–14 of each sick period, after a karensavdrag equal to 20% of average weekly sick pay, roughly one day’s pay for a five-day week. A doctor’s certificate is needed from day 8. On day 15 the employer reports the case to Försäkringskassan, which then pays sjukpenning at about 80% of pay, up to SEK 1,259 a day in 2026. The general refund for high sick-pay costs ended in June 2024.

11

Where do the 31.42% contributions actually go?

The 31.42% is split into seven parts for 2026: old-age pension 10.21%, survivors’ pension 0.30%, health insurance 3.55%, parental insurance 2.00%, work injury 0.10%, labour market 2.64% and the general payroll levy 12.62%. They fund the state pension, sickness and parental benefits and work-injury cover, so there is no separate workers’ compensation premium. Collective agreements add an occupational pension on top, such as ITP1 at 4.5% of salary up to SEK 52,125 a month, which carries 24.26% särskild löneskatt.

12

How does dismissal work under LAS?

Dismissal requires sakliga skäl (objective grounds): either arbetsbrist, a shortage of work, or reasons tied to the individual. Notice from the employer rises with service, from 1 month under two years to 6 months at ten years or more. In a redundancy the last-in, first-out order applies, although every employer may exempt three people, and the employer must first negotiate with the union under MBL. Since the 2022 reform, employment ends when notice runs out even if the dismissal is disputed.

13

Can your hire work from home or abroad?

Home working is agreed between employer and employee, usually in the contract, and the employer keeps responsibility for the work environment at a home workplace, as Arbetsmiljöverket states. Staff who live outside Sweden but work here may be taxed under SINK, a 22.5% flat final tax on Swedish-source pay for non-residents in 2026. Where someone would work mostly from another country, check that country’s tax and social security rules before agreeing to it.

14

Which Swedish tasks move to the employer of record?

The employer of record signs the anställningsavtal, holds the employer registration, runs monthly payroll with the right tax table, and files the AGI return and pays contributions, in most months by the 12th. It also handles sjuklön, the day-15 report to Försäkringskassan and holiday records under semesterlagen. You keep the choice of candidate, the daily management of the work and decisions on pay rises. The monthly charge is from USD 560 per employee, with set-up billed once before the first payroll.