Tax in Denmark: how to get started
If you have started working in Denmark, you need to register with the Danish Tax Agency. Find out how to get a CPR number, manage your preliminary income assessment and make sure the correct tax is deducted from your salary.
How tax works in Denmark
In Denmark, you pay:
- a labour market contribution, AM-bidrag
- municipal income tax
- state income tax
If you are liable to pay tax in Denmark, you may also be entitled to tax deductions. Which deductions you can claim depends on your tax liability.
Register with the Danish Tax Agency
If you work in Denmark, you normally pay tax to the Danish Tax Agency, Skattestyrelsen.
Skattestyrelsen is the Danish authority responsible for tax. You use Skattestyrelsen to get and update your preliminary income assessment, forskudsopgørelse, which determines how much tax is deducted from your income during the year. You can access your tax information and submit your annual tax return on Skattestyrelsen's website, skat.dk.
Contact Skattestyrelsen if you have questions about your tax, need to update your tax information or stop working in Denmark. This helps ensure that your tax records are up to date.
Read about Danish tax affairs at skat.dk
Get a Danish personal ID number
If you live or work in Denmark, you generally need a Danish personal ID number, CPR number. It is issued at birth to people born in Denmark or when you are registered in the Danish Civil Registration System.
If you live in Sweden and commute to work in Denmark, you receive a CPR number when you register with Skattestyrelsen for tax purposes. Your CPR number is valid for life.
See our page about getting a Danish CPR number or tax number
Check your preliminary income assessment
When you register with Skattestyrelsen for tax purposes, you receive your forskudsopgørelse. It provides the information your employer needs to deduct the correct amount of tax from your salary.
Your forskudsopgørelse contains Skattestyrelsen's estimate of your income and tax deductions for the year. If any information is incorrect or missing, you must update it. Otherwise, you may pay too much or too little tax during the year. Any difference is settled when your annual tax assessment, årsopgørelse, is issued.
If your employer does not have the information needed to calculate your tax, they must deduct an 8% labour market contribution, AM-bidrag, and 55% tax from the remaining amount.
You can view and update your forskudsopgørelse in Skattestyrelsen's online self-service system, TastSelv.
Read about your preliminary income assessment at skat.dk
Manage your Danish tax online
You use Skattestyrelsen's online self-service system, TastSelv, to manage your Danish tax. To access TastSelv, you need the Danish digital ID, MitID. If you cannot get MitID, you can request a TastSelv code instead.
In TastSelv, you can:
- check your income information
- update your forskudsopgørelse
- check and update your årsopgørelse
Get a TastSelv code at skat.dk
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