Preliminary income assessment
Once you have been given a Danish personal identification number, you must contact a tax centre to obtain a preliminary income assessment applying for the year of taxation. You must use the preliminary income assessment whether or not you receive income from Denmark, from abroad or from both places. If you have recently taken up residence in Denmark, you should normally bring your most recent tax statement from your previous country of residence, information about pay or pension income, contract of purchase (if you have bought real property) and bank details (interest, any foreign accounts).
The preliminary income assessment shows your estimated income, allowances and deductions as well as estimated provisional tax and labour market contributions for the year of taxation. Information on tax rate (withholding rate) and allowances and deductions is shown on the first page of your preliminary income assessment. Secondary card (bikort) information is provided together with the tax rate and deduction card (hovedkort) information.
A tax-free allowance or deduction is an amount on which you do not have to pay tax. This means that the amount is â€Ëœdeductedâ€â„¢ from your gross pay before calculating your tax. The tax rate is the percentage payable in tax after the allowance or deduction has been deducted from your pay.
You can access and change your preliminary income assessment in your personal tax folder in TastSelv: www.skat.dk/tastselv. You can log on to TastSelv using a TastSelv PIN code, which may be ordered via www.skat.dk/tastselv.
Your employer will automatically receive your tax card information digitally.
Your employer uses your tax card information to calculate the tax to be withheld from your pay.
The Danish tax year corresponds to a calendar year. In other words, income tax is calculated on the income you have earned during a calendar year. In the course of the year, the income tax is withheld by the employer/whoever transfers the pay. The amount withheld is paid by the employer to the tax authorities as provisional tax. Via your tax folder, you will have access to the information about you (pay, A tax) which your employer reports.
Note! The preliminary income assessment is personal and cannot be used by others.
Payroll withholding tax on work performed in another Nordic country, and transfer of tax (the Nordic treaty on payment and transfer of tax)
If you work for an employer in your country of residence but are going to perform work in another Nordic country, you or your employer must submit either form NT 1 or form NT 2 to the tax office where your employer is resident. This will ensure that your tax is deducted in the correct country. If you are liable to tax in your country of residence (i.e. if you stay for less than 183 days in the country of work), you should complete form NT 1. If you are liable to tax in the country of work, you should complete form NT 2. This applies if you stay there for more than 183 days, if your employer has a permanent establishment there, and (in some countries) if you are hired-out personnel.
In certain cases the Nordic treaty on payment and transfer of tax allows the tax authorities to transfer tax between countries. If tax has been withheld from your income from employment in one Nordic country and the same income proves to be taxable in another Nordic country, the tax that has been withheld can be transferred to the country in which the tax is payable. Any tax transferred pursuant to this treaty is always deemed to have been paid on time, so you will not be charged interest etc. on the amount transferred. However, if the amount paid is insufficient to cover the tax payable to the other country, you yourself will have to pay the excess tax, plus any interest due on that amount.