A guide to understanding personal taxes

In Sweden, taxes are almost always withheld at the time of salary payment, because employers are obliged to deduct tax from your salary before you are paid.

<aside> 💡 Employed PhD students have a normal salary and normal taxes.

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You can calculate your taxes here:

Räkna ut din skatt - Ekonomifakta


Everyone who has been working in Sweden during the whole or part of the previous should submit a tax return (Inkomstdeklaration 1). This income tax return form is sent by the Swedish Tax Agency in April to all those obliged to submit a tax return.

<aside> 💡 You have an obligation to declare taxes every year. Usually, it is in the first week of May. Please refer to the video by Swedish Tax Agency.

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https://vimeo.com/89381562

For more information about taxes in Sweden

In English

<aside> 💡 Those who had 90% of their income for a calendar year from their employment as a PhD student, can get "grundavdrag" during their tax declaration.

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Experience from a collegue:

I would like to mention, that those who had 90% of their income that calendar year from their employment as a PhD student, can get "grundavdrag" during their tax declaration. In my case I was unemployment before my PhD studies began. I started in May. As a foreigner, all my income that year were from my employment as PhD student, but I was taxed the normal rate (if I had worked the whole year). When you ask for grundavdrag your salary will be averaged, and thus be lower than what you were taxed for, resulting in a big tax return (6000SEK in my case.)