Michelle Legge
By Michelle LeggeHead of Crypto Tax Education
Updated Jan 2, 2024
This article has been fact checked and reviewed as per our editorial policy.

Crypto Tax Sweden: 2024 Guide

Want to know how much tax you'll pay on crypto in Sweden? Our Sweden crypto tax guide covers everything you need to know, including crypto Capital Gains Tax on crypto, crypto Income Tax, and how to calculate and report your crypto taxes to the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, by the May 2 deadline.

Do you have to pay tax on crypto in Sweden?

Yes. Crypto is subject to tax in Sweden. Skatteverket is clear that from a tax perspective, cryptocurrencies are defined as "other assets" and may be subject to Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax, or Interest Income Tax depending on the specific transaction.

How much tax do you pay on crypto in Sweden?

The tax you'll pay on your crypto depends on your specific transaction, the type of tax that applies, and, in some instances, how much you earn and where you live:

  • Crypto capital gains: 30% tax

  • Crypto interest income: 30% tax

  • Income from crypto: There are two potential taxes you may pay - National Income Tax and Municipal Income Tax. You’ll pay National Income Tax of 20% if you earn more than 613,900 SEK a year, while Municipal Income Tax varies depending on where you live, but is an average 32% tax rate on all income.

This guide is regularly updated

Before we start - crypto tax rules in Sweden are always changing. At Koinly, we keep a close eye on guidance from the Swedish Tax Agency and regularly update our guide to keep you informed and tax compliant.

19 December 2023: Updated for 2024
10 April 2023: Welcome to the Swedish Crypto Tax Guide!

Can Skatteverket track crypto?

Yes. Skatteverket can track your crypto.

Thanks to the European Union's sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive - any company that provides financial services in the EU, including crypto exchanges, must adhere to strict regulations regarding customer identification, which you might know as KYC verification. Any data processed as part of KYC is made available between EU member states, including Sweden.

Is any crypto tax free?

Let’s start with the good news. There are some transactions you won’t pay tax on in Sweden, including:

  • Buying crypto with Swedish Krona

  • Holding crypto

  • Transferring crypto between your own wallets

  • Gifting crypto

  • Donating crypto - although this is not tax deductible unless converted and donated in a fiat currency, i.e. SEK.

How is crypto taxed in Sweden?

Skatteverket is clear that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are viewed as ‘other assets’ from a tax perspective. This means while they’re similar in nature to assets like shares or foreign currencies, they have a distinct tax treatment. There are three taxes that may apply depending on the transaction you’ve made:

  • Capital Gains Tax

  • Interest Income Tax

  • Income Tax

A quick note before we dive further in, we're covering crypto tax for private persons (individuals) in this guide. If you've dealt with crypto as part of a business, the tax implications will be different.

Crypto Capital Gains Tax Sweden

When you dispose of crypto, you’ll have a capital gain or loss and you'll pay Capital Gains Tax on any gain. Disposals of crypto according to Skatteverket guidance include:

  • Selling crypto for SEK or another fiat currency

  • Trading one crypto for another cryptocurrency

  • Spending crypto on goods or services

  • Lending crypto on both centralized and decentralized platforms

  • Adding and removing liquidity from decentralized liquidity pools

The Capital Gains Tax rate in Sweden is a flat 30% regardless of your income.

Crypto losses Sweden

Not all your crypto disposals will result in a gain. When you make a disposal and it results in a loss, you have a capital loss. These aren't all bad news because you can use them to offset your gains and reduce your overall Capital Gains Tax bill.

However, Skatteverket has very specific rules on deducting capital losses - specifically, only 70% of any loss is deductible.

Lost and stolen crypto Sweden

If lost your private keys, had your funds stolen or even lost crypto due to a collapsed exchange, you might be wondering whether you can deduct these losses from your capital gains.

Well, Skatteverket has released guidance on this and it’s not good news.

The guidance is clear that if you've lost access to your crypto due to losing your private key, or due to being hacked, you are not entitled to deduct losses as a result. As well as this, you must not recalculate your cost basis if you have multiple assets of the same kind you still own if you have not disposed of these and otherwise lost access to them.

Skatteverket also provides guidance on whether individuals can get deductions if they lent assets through Celsius or for losses related to FTX - with extremely specific guidance for both.

For FTX users, if you've made disposals on the FTX platform that resulted in capital gains or losses, then you should report both in your tax return, but you'll also need to make an open claim to report your losses.

An open claim is an explanation for your requested deduction made in the other information section of your tax return. Please note, you should only do this for losses you've made as a result of disposals on FTX prior to collapse, not just for funds you've had frozen on the platform. For losses from funds frozen on the platform, you'll likely have to wait for bankruptcy proceedings to conclude for a clearer picture of your losses and whether you'll be able to claim them.

For Celsius users who lost crypto due to lending it on the platform, it's even more complicated. From the Skatteverket's perspective, as you lent crypto, you disposed of it at the point you transferred it to Celsius. Those who have lent their crypto assets to Celsius have thus disposed of the assets and must perform a capital gain calculation in their Income Tax Return. Instead of the crypto assets, they now have a claim on Celsius.

To deduct a loss on a claim relating to Celsius, it is required, among other things, that the claim has been disposed of. A security is considered to be disposed of if the company that issued it has been declared bankrupt and is a limited company or a cooperative association. Since Celsius is undergoing corporate restructuring according to Chapter 11, the claim cannot be considered disposed of due to bankruptcy. If Celsius were to be declared bankrupt in the future, the Swedish Tax Agency will need to assess whether the claim against Celsius is considered a security issue by the company, but they'll only do this if Celsius is declared bankrupt.

How to calculate crypto capital gains and losses

To calculate your capital gain, you need to start by knowing your cost basis. That is, how much your crypto cost you to acquire, plus any allowable fees.

Once you know your cost basis, subtract your cost basis from the price you sold your crypto for.

If you traded or spent your crypto - subtract your cost basis from the fair market value of the crypto on the day you traded or spent it.

If you have a profit, you have a capital gain and you’ll pay 30% Capital Gains Tax on that gain. If you made a loss, you can deduct 70% of this.

Cost basis method

Our examples above only deal with one asset at a time. The reality is most investors have multiple assets of the same kind when it comes to crypto. As such, it can get a little more complicated tracking your cost basis.

For example, if you owned 3 BTC and later sold 1 BTC, but you bought each BTC for a different price on a different date throughout a given financial year - how do you know which cost basis to use when calculating your gain or loss? It can make a big difference to your tax bill!

This is where cost basis methods come in and the Skatteverket is very clear that there is only one allowable cost basis method - the average cost basis method.

This method dictates you calculate the average cost basis for an asset by adding up the entire value of assets of the same kind and this becomes your total cost amount. You then divide the total overhead amount by the number of coins/tokens you own of that kind. You’ll do this for each kind of crypto you own.

For example, you own 2 BTC and 3 ETH. You’d add up the acquisition costs for your 2 BTC and divide it by two to get your average cost basis for your BTC capital gain or loss calculations. You’d similarly add up the acquisition costs for your 3 ETH and divide it by three to get your average cost basis for your ETH capital gain or loss calculations.

A small note though, you do not need to calculate using the average method if you have sold all your cryptocurrency of the same kind on one occasion and there have not been partial sales before then. Then you can easily calculate profit or loss by deducting what you paid for the cryptocurrency from the sale price.

Interest Income Tax Sweden

Interest Income Tax (Ränteinkomst) applies when you receive crypto as a result of lending, so as interest, for example lending crypto on Nexo, Binance Earn, and more. This can apply to both centralized and decentralized platform protocols, but it all depends on how your protocol works (more on this later!)

Similarly, Interest Income Tax also applies to staking rewards - although there are some specific rules around this that differ from the tax implications that arise from lending protocols.

Like Capital Gains Tax, Interest Income Tax is a flat 30% tax rate.

A key difference from the Capital Gains Tax rules however is that losses from interest payments are fully deductible. Let's take a look at a quick example of what we mean.

EXAMPLE

You lent out Bitcoin in order to receive interest or other returns on it. You used Nexo to do this, who then lend your Bitcoin out again.

As Nexo intends to lend the bitcoin further, your lending is considered disposal. You are thus exchanging your Bitcoin for a claim to receive an equivalent amount of Bitcoin back.

You have deposited 1 BTC with Nexo. The market value at the time of deposit was 250,000 SEK. This value is considered the selling price for 1 BTC and, at the same time, the cost basis for the claim to receive 1 BTC back.

After a month, you receive an interest of 0.01 BTC. The market value is 3,000 SEK. This amount should be taxed as ongoing returns in the capital income category. Your claim on Nexo has simultaneously increased to 1.01 BTC. Your cost basis for the claim then becomes 253,000 SEK. You withdraw 1.01 BTC when the value is 310,000 SEK. Your profit on the claim is 57,000 SEK (310,000 – 253,000). At the same time, you are considered to have bought 1.01 BTC for 310,000 SEK upon withdrawal.

You report the disposals on Schedule K4, Section D, both for the Bitcoin and unlisted claim. You report the interest at point 7.2 in the income tax return.

Crypto Income Tax Sweden

In some instances, you’ll be seen to be earning income in crypto - like a salary or a bonus. This includes:

If you’re seen to be earning crypto - you’ll pay Income Tax on it just like you would if you were paid in Swedish Krona. Just take the fair market value of the crypto you receive in Krona on the day you receive it to figure out how much income you have.

When you later sell, spend, or trade your crypto, even though you’ve paid Income Tax on it, you’ll still pay Capital Gains Tax on any profit.

Sweden Income Tax Rates

You'll pay a slightly different Income Tax rate on annual income depending on your municipality, although the average rate is around 32%. High earners pay a 20% National Income Tax rate as well.

Source

Taxable Income (SEK)National Income TaxMunicipal Income Tax*
0 - 540,7000%32%
540,700+20%32%

Sweden also has a personal allowance for Income - so an amount that is exempt from taxable income - this is between 15,400 SEK to 40,500 SEK.

With the basics out the way, let’s take a look in depth at the different types of transactions and the tax you’ll pay.

Tax free crypto transactions Sweden

Want to know when you won’t pay any tax at all on your crypto? There are a few key transactions you need to know about.

Buying crypto with Swedish Krona

TAX FREE

Buying crypto with SEK is tax free! But you’ll need to keep accurate records of how much it cost you to acquire your crypto for your capital gains calculations later on!

Hodling crypto

TAX FREE

Waiting for the moon? Holding crypto is tax free too, provided you’re not disposing, lending or otherwise investing your crypto - so leaving that nest egg in a cold wallet won’t create any tax implications.

Transferring crypto between your own wallets

TAX FREE

Moving crypto between your own wallets is not a taxable event as you’re not disposing of your asset. However, gas or network fees you pay relating to the transfer may not be as simple. Skatteverket hasn’t released any guidance on this yet, but this may potentially be viewed as a disposal and therefore create a taxable event. You can learn more about dealing with crypto transfer fees and taxes in our guide.

Gifting crypto

TAX FREE

Giving someone a gift in Sweden is tax free - including crypto. So whether you’re the giftee or the recipient, you’ll pay no tax.

Donating crypto

TAX FREE

Donations of crypto to registered charities are seen as similar to a gift and tax free. Donations of crypto are not tax deductible, only donations of fiat currency would be considered tax deductible.

However, the receiver of the donation has to be approved by the Swedish Tax Agency and your donations must be at least 200 SEK per donation and a total donation of at least 2000 SEK per year to be considered tax-deductible.

Taxed crypto transactions

To recap - there are three different taxes you might pay depending on the transaction you’ve made, so let’s cover them all.

Selling crypto for Swedish Krona

TAX FREE

If you sell your crypto for SEK, you’ve made a disposal and you’ll pay 30% Capital Gains Tax on any gain as a result. If you’ve made a loss, you may deduct 70% of any capital loss as a result.

To calculate your gain or loss, calculate your cost basis (using the average cost basis method if you have multiple assets of the same kind) from your sale price.

Trading one crypto for another cryptocurrency

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Trading one cryptocurrency for another is a disposal and as such you’ll pay 30% Capital Gains Tax on any gain. It’s important to note here, it doesn’t matter the kind of cryptocurrency you’re trading for - for example, whether you’re trading ETH for another cryptocurrency like BTC, a token like USDT, or even an NFT. It’s still a taxable transaction and you’ll need to calculate a capital gain or loss.

Spending crypto on goods or services

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Spending crypto on goods or services - for example, buying a PC with BTC - is a disposal of your crypto and therefore a taxable event. You’ll need to calculate your gain or loss by subtracting your cost basis from the fair market value of your crypto on the day you spent it.

Lending crypto

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Crypto lending tax in Sweden is complicated so let's break it down.

Each time you lend crypto, this is treated as if you sold your crypto. However, when you lend crypto you'll get a claim (fordran) which is equivalent to the cost basis of your loaned crypto. This matters because once you're finished loaning your crypto and want your asset back, you sell your claim (fordran) and effectively re-purchase the crypto. If your crypto has appreciated in value in the time you've loaned it - you'll pay Capital Gains Tax on this, so the difference between the fair market value of the crypto when you loaned it and when you received it back. You'll then adopt the new cost basis for your crypto.

You'll also pay Interest Income Tax on any interest or rewards you receive - which is a separate taxable transaction we’ll cover below.

Loan interest and earn rewards

INTEREST INCOME TAX

Interest received from lending your crypto is generally taxed as interest income at 30%.

So when you lend crypto - you’re creating multiple taxable transactions. You’ll need to calculate a capital gain or loss at the point you deposit your crypto into your platform and calculate the interest income you receive from the platform which is taxable at the point of allocation. Then when you remove your crypto from the platform, you’ll treat this as a purchase.

Staking rewards

INTEREST INCOME TAX

Crypto staking tax is complicated as it all comes down to the specific protocol you're using to stake from a tax perspective.

In all instances, you'll pay Interest Income Tax on staking rewards. If you later sell, spend, or trade your staking rewards, you'll also pay Capital Gains Tax on any profit.

When it comes to moving your crypto around in the process of staking - it's a little more complicated. The Swedish Tax Agency has stated that staking on ETH 2.0 would not be considered a disposal - so you'd only need to pay Interest Income Tax on the staking rewards at the point you receive them. In other words, the asset doesn't transfer between owners, you still hold it and therefore no Capital Gains Tax sale has occurred. It’s only the rewards you’ll pay interest on, and specifically for ETH 2.0, they’re only taxable at the point you’re able to withdraw and dispose of them.

However, this may not be the case if you’re staking via a third party or DeFi staking as you may be seen as disposing of your asset and therefore creating a Capital Gains Tax event. Check out the lending guidance above for the likely treatment of staking via a third party and DeFi staking.

Liquidity pools and other DeFi protocols

TAX

The Swedish Tax Agency has issued some guidance on adding and removing liquidity from decentralized liquidity pools.

From a tax perspective, when you deposit your crypto into a liquidity pool and receive a liquidity pool token in return, this is a disposal and a capital gain or loss must be calculated. Similarly, when you remove your crypto from the liquidity pool by exchanging your LP tokens back, this is seen as a disposal and a capital gain or loss must be calculated.

When it comes to other DeFi transactions staking, yield farming, and lending protocols, it’s more likely you’d pay Interest Income Tax on any rewards as a result of these protocols instead, and follow the lending tax rules covered above.

Skatteverket is clear that if you've received cryptocurrency as a kind of salary in exchange for work or employment, this is subject to Income Tax. As well as this, if you later dispose of the crypto you received, any gain will be subject to Capital Gains Tax.

Mining crypto

INCOME TAX

Skatteverket is clear that mining rewards - whether that’s Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or another PoW cryptocurrency - are subject to Income Tax. To calculate your income, you’ll need to identify the fair market value of any mined coins in SEK on the day you received them.

Airdrops

POTENTIAL TAX

Skatteverket has not yet issued guidance on airdrops - but we can look to existing guidance as to the potential tax implications.

In Sweden, receiving a gift of crypto is tax free. But this is provided you did nothing in return for it.

In many instances, investors conduct a particular activity in order to receive an airdrop, for example, sharing a social media post or using a particular product or service. It’s not clear where the bar may be set for whether airdrops may still constitute a gift if an investor has done something in exchange and without guidance, you should speak to an experienced crypto accountant in Sweden for bespoke advice on your personal circumstances and the tax liability that may arise.

Forks

NO GUIDANCE

Skatteverket has not released guidance on how to treat coins or tokens you receive as a result of a hard fork from a tax perspective. However, following the Bitcoin Cash fork in 2017, Skatteverket did state that receiving Bitcoin Cash would not create a Capital Gains Tax event, but that the cost basis would be 0 SEK if later disposed of.

ICOs

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an investment in a company or project where you usually submit a given amount of cryptocurrency and receive a given amount of tokens, potentially at a later point. If the ICO is successful, this is treated as a crypto to crypto trade from a tax perspective and therefore you’ll need to calculate a capital gain or loss for your investment.

Crypto margin trading, derivatives, and other CFDs

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Although Skatteverket hasn’t released guidance on margin, CFD, or derivatives trading for crypto specifically, there is existing guidance on these kinds of transactions for more traditional financial markets or assets.

We wrote to Skatteverket back in 2019 to get some clarification on this - specifically margin trading, who replied stating that generally it would be treated as a purchase at the point you open your position and a sale at the point you close your position.  So at the point you close your position, you’ll pay Capital Gains Tax at 30% on any realized gains.

Crypto margin trading, derivatives like futures, and other CFDs are all treated similarly from a tax perspective, although there may be specific unique rules for each product type regarding deductible allowances, reporting requirements, and more. You can see more Skatteverket guidance on CFDs and options.

NFTs tax

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Although NFTs are taxed in the same way as cryptocurrency in Sweden, as they’ve become such a popular investment, it’s worth covering it again. Like crypto, the way NFTs are taxed in Sweden depends on the specific transaction you're making.

  • Buying an NFT with fiat currency: Because you buy NFTs with crypto, this is seen as a crypto-to-crypto trade and subject to Capital Gains Tax. In the unusual circumstance you buy an NFT with fiat currency - this would not be subject to Capital Gains Tax.

  • Trading one NFT for another: Capital Gains Tax.

  • Selling an NFT: Regardless of whether you're selling for fiat or crypto - you'll pay Capital Gains Tax.

  • Minting an NFT: In most instances, it costs crypto to mint an NFT. This may be viewed as a disposal of crypto (for example ETH if you’re using the Ethereum blockchain) and a purchase of an NFT.

  • Creating and selling NFTs: If you're creating and selling NFTs to make an income, depending on the scale, this could be considered hobby income and subject to Income Tax.

When to report crypto taxes Sweden

The Swedish financial year matches the calendar year - so from the 1st of January until the 31st of December each year. You need to report your crypto taxes for the previous financial year the following year, by the 2nd of May. This means you’re currently reporting on the 2023 financial year and the deadline to submit your crypto taxes is the 2nd of May 2024. The online tax portal where you can declare your crypto taxes opens in mid-march each year.

How to file crypto taxes Sweden

You’ll report your crypto taxes as part of your annual tax return as follows:

  • Report your capital gains and losses in K4 form under section D.

  • Report any crypto income as part of your Inkomstdeklaration 1. Salaries in crypto are reported under Inkomst av Tjänst while additional income (like from mining) is reported in a T2 form.

  • Report any interest income by adding it to the total sum of section 7.2 (Interest, dividends etc.) of your annual tax return.

How to calculate and file your crypto taxes with Koinly

Koinly saves you hours by calculating your crypto taxes for you. Here's how easy it is:

  1. Sign up for a free Koinly account.

  2. Select your base country (Sweden), currency (SEK), and cost basis method (ACB).

  3. Connect Koinly to your wallets and exchanges. Koinly integrates with Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and hundreds more. (See all)

  4. Let Koinly crunch the numbers. Make a coffee.

  5. Ta-da! Your data is collected and your tax report is generated!

  6. To download your crypto tax report, upgrade to a paid plan. Koinly can generate the K4 form or a Complete Tax Report if you have income or interest income.

  7. Send your report to your accountant, or complete your tax return yourself using the figures from your Koinly report.

What records does Skatteverket need?

Skatteverket states taxpayers do not need to send any supporting documents with their tax return, but must be able to show their cost basis calculations in the event of an inquiry - so you should keep good records to help you do this. Skatteverket states this could include:

  • Bank statements or equivalent documentation

  • Transaction history from wallets

  • Transaction history from exchanges

Koinly can help you keep excellent records of your crypto transactions, capital gains, losses, calculations, and more - just in case you ever need them. Best of all, it’s totally free to sign up and use today.

Disclaimer
The information on this website is for general information only. It should not be taken as constituting professional advice from Koinly. Koinly is not a financial adviser. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice to check how the website information relates to your unique circumstances. Koinly is not liable for any loss caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information provided directly or indirectly, by use of this website.
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