SwedenSkatteverket
Skatteverket: sublet premises need voluntary VAT in every later link
First- and second-hand tenants may tax their own onward letting in the second or third hand, but where premises are sublet on, every subsequent link must also be let with voluntary taxation.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 5 October 2026
A first-hand or second-hand tenant that sublets premises, and a bostadsrättshavare that grants use of premises held with bostadsrätt, may opt to charge VAT on their own onward letting in the second or third hand. Letting in links beyond the second-hand tenant's onward letting cannot be covered by voluntary taxation at all, so a chain has a hard outer limit: the second-hand tenant's subletting is the last link that can be taxed
Skatteverket.
Where premises are used for further subletting, each subsequent link must itself be let with voluntary taxationSkatteverket. A voluntarily taxed second-hand letting therefore does not protect the chain on its own: if the next tenant sublets again, that third-hand letting must also be opted into voluntary taxation, or the chain breaksSkatteverket. The same applies down every link the rules still permit.
A tenant or bostadsrättshavare may make this choice even when the property owner or the first-hand tenant has not opted for voluntary taxation. No upstream decision is a precondition; each eligible person in the chain decides for their own letting by stating VAT on the invoice, and becomes liable to pay that VAT to the state.
The conditions follow the owner-letting rules. The tenant's use must be stadigvarande användning, and the tenant must have the required VAT status, i.e. use the premises permanently in a business whose transactions carry a right of deduction or refund. The special rules for lettings to the state, a municipality, a municipal federation or a coordination federation apply in the same way, as they do to a bostadsrättshavare's grant of use.
The taxable persons entitled to choose voluntary taxation for their property letting or bostadsrätt grant are, under 12 kap. 8 § ML, fastighetsägare, first- and second-hand tenants, bostadsrättshavare, bankruptcy estates and VAT groups. Only owners, bankruptcy estates and VAT groups may apply for voluntary taxation during a construction phase before any letting has begun (12 kap. 12 § ML); tenants and bostadsrättshavare cannot, even though they may later opt for the letting itself.
Legal basis: 12 kap. 8 § and 12 § mervärdesskattelag (2023:200).
Map every subletting chain you advise on link by link and make sure each onward letting in the second or third hand is itself opted into frivillig beskattning, since one voluntarily taxed link does not carry the later links.