SwedenSkatteverket
Lump-sum business income can be spread over earning years
Business income earned over several years but taxed in one can be spread: single multi-year assignments, leasehold and trademark disposals, relocation pay and property recaptures qualify.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 7 October 2026
Sole traders and other individuals taxed on business income can spread the tax on a one-off spike over the years it was earnedSkatteverket. A special tax calculation (särskild skatteberäkning) for accumulated income applies to income that relates to at least two tax years under 66 kap. 1 § inkomstskattelagen
Skatteverket, but for business income only to the categories listed in 66 kap. 18-21 §§ IL
Skatteverket. The calculation must cover all accumulated income in the same line of business
Skatteverket, must be requested by the taxpayer
Skatteverket, and generally requires a net amount of at least 50 000 kronor
Skatteverket with taxable earned income exceeding the threshold by at least 50 000 kronor
Skatteverket.
The new material concerns four business-income categories where the relief is available. First, years-long single assignments: where an architect or an advocate has devoted themselves exclusively to a single engagement over several years but receives the whole payment only when it is completed, a special calculation may applySkatteverket (compare RÅ 1970 ref. 6). The same principle already covered authors working years on a work and painters selling pictures at an exhibition.
Second, disposals of leaseholds and goodwill-type rights: income from transferring a hyresrätt, or a varumärke, företagsnamn or similar goodwill-nature right, qualifies under 66 kap. 18 § first paragraph point 2 ILSkatteverket.
Third, relocation compensation: payment received for vacating premises used in the business qualifies under 66 kap. 18 § first paragraph point 3 ILSkatteverket.
Fourth, business-property recaptures: where a näringsfastighet is disposed of, or reclassified as a private residence property, the accumulated-income rules can apply to income taxed as business income on the eventSkatteverket. Covered income includes reversed depreciation deductions for buildings or land improvements, reversed skogsavdrag and reversed deductions for depletion of natural assets (substansminskning) under 26 kap. 2, 8, 9 or 13 § IL
Skatteverket.
The spread is mechanical: the net amount is divided into as many equal annual amounts as the number of years the income relates to, at most tenSkatteverket, and the tax increase from adding one annual amount to an average taxable earned income is multiplied by the number of annual amounts
Skatteverket. Legal basis: 66 kap. 1, 3 and 18 §§ inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229)
Skatteverket.
Where a business lump sum accrued over at least two years, claim the special calculation and check the income falls under 66 kap. 18-21 §§ IL before spreading it over the earning years.