How much would you keep working for yourself?
Compare a salary with three ways to work for yourself in Sweden. It takes a minute.
SEK
2. What to compare
- Your employer pays the tax on your salary for you, and also pays the state almost a third on top of your salary.
- You are paid for 25 days of holiday and when you are ill. Often the employer also saves for your pension.
- To start, you only apply to the tax office, Skatteverket.
- On the profit you pay tax as on a salary, plus fees for pension and insurance, about 29%.
- If the business owes money, you pay it with your own money. You can keep the books yourself.
- To start, you put SEK 25,000 into the company and register it with Bolagsverket.
- If the company owes money, nobody touches your own money.
- The company pays tax on its profit. It costs more to run than an enskild firma.
- Such services are Frilans Finans, Cool Company and others. They take 4-6% of the invoice for their work.
- For the tax office you are their employee. You do not register anything.
You changed something. Press Calculate.
Matters when you count before tax.
Own business
Software, equipment, insurance.
For the hourly rate.
Usually 1,500 - 6,000.
From 6,000 on your own to 30,000 with an accountant.
More aktiebolag options
How we calculated
Why an aktiebolag can come out ahead
- You can take money out of an aktiebolag in two ways: as salary and as dividends. A dividend is a part of the profit that the company gives to its owner.
- Dividends are taxed less than salary. From every SEK 1,000 of profit paid out as dividends, you keep about SEK 630. In an enskild firma with a similar income you keep about SEK 570.
- But the low tax only applies up to a limit: about SEK 322,000 of dividends a year. Anything above that is taxed like salary.
- So the calculator looks for the best mix: a little salary and the rest as dividends.
- There is a downside. Pension and sick pay are counted only from salary. If the salary is small, they are small too.
- And an aktiebolag costs more to run. That is already in the calculation.
How dividends are paid
- Dividends are paid from profit that is already confirmed in the company's annual report.
- Usually this happens once a year, after the owners' meeting. If you are the only owner, the meeting is just you.
- You cannot pay dividends every month in advance, from this year's profit.
- So there are no dividends in the first year. You live on the salary or on your savings.
- The calculator shows dividends per month to make it easier: it is the yearly amount divided by 12.
What the costs include
- Enskild firma: bookkeeping software and a bank. We counted SEK 3,000 a year.
- Aktiebolag: also an annual report and more bookkeeping. We counted SEK 18,000 a year. Doing it all yourself in software can cost about SEK 6,000. With an accountant, SEK 30,000 or more.
- Egenanställning: no company costs, but the service takes 6% of every invoice.
- You can enter your own amounts under Change, below the Calculate button.