State-aid recovery claims to bar firms from tonnage tax

Shipping companies subject to a European Commission recovery order for illegal state aid cannot enter or stay in Sweden's tonnage tax scheme.Riksdagen Under government proposition 2026/27:3, Skatteverket must refuse an application for tonnage tax approval while the company faces a payment claim based on a Commission decision declaring aid illegal and incompatible with the internal marketRiksdagen. The bar lasts until the recovered amount, including interest, is paid in full.Riksdagen

An existing approval must be revoked if the company does not pay the recovery claim on time.Riksdagen Revocation takes effect retroactively from the tax year in which the payment claim originally fell dueRiksdagen, and can reach back to earlier tonnage-taxed years, at the earliest the tax year that ended during the sixth calendar year before the revocation decisionRiksdagen. No revocation follows where the company pays the full amount, aid plus interest, within the same tax year the claim fell due and before Skatteverket decides on revocation.Riksdagen

The ten-year re-entry ban that normally follows a Skatteverket-initiated revocation does not apply here.Riksdagen Instead, a company whose approval was revoked on this ground may be approved again as soon as the recovered amount is fully paidRiksdagen, subject to the ordinary rule that an application must reach Skatteverket no later than five months before the start of the first tax year it coversRiksdagen. No revocation fee is charged on these revocationsRiksdagen, since the Commission's decision may rest on circumstances entirely outside the company's control — a point the government stresses, noting recovery cases are extremely rare in Sweden.

Approved companies take on a running disclosure duty. In each income tax return they must state the information Skatteverket needs to assess revocation under the new provisionRiksdagen — including whether they are or have been subject to such a payment claim during the tax year the return covers, even where the amount has since been paid in fullRiksdagen. Companies seeking approval already must supply the necessary information with the application under existing rules, so no new application-stage provision is added.

The background is the Commission's approval on 7 May 2026 of Sweden's revised tonnage tax scheme for 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2036, conditional on Sweden adding exactly this Deggendorf-style barRiksdagen: no new aid to a company facing an outstanding recovery orderRiksdagen. The amendments change chapter 13a, sections 2, 10, 17 and 18, and chapter 31, section 15a of the Tax Procedures Act (skatteförfarandelagen 2011:1244), adding a new section 10a.

Legal basis: proposition 2026/27:3 amending skatteförfarandelagen (2011:1244), decided by the government on 1 October 2026 following the Commission state-aid approval SA.118588.