Cooling period for ex-fåmansföretag shares cut to four years

Shares that were qualified when a company ceases to be a fåmansföretag keep that status for a shorter cooling period from income year 2026Skatteverket. Where the company leaves fåmansföretag status in 2026 or later, the shares count as qualified for the income year of cessation plus four following income years, instead of five.Skatteverket Cessations before income year 2026 keep the old five-year periodSkatteverket. The rule covers only income on shares the holder owned when the company ceased to be a fåmansföretag, or shares acquired by virtue of such shares, for example bonus shares from a later bonus issue, and it requires that the holder or a related party owned the shares and that they were qualified at the cessation point. A typical trigger is a listing on a regulated market.

The transition creates one overlap year. Holders whose cooling period started in 2022 keep a five-year periodSkatteverket, so their shares can first count as non-qualified in income year 2027. Holders who started in 2023 or later have a four-year periodSkatteverket, so theirs also turn non-qualified in 2027 at the earliest. From income year 2027 the shares of both cohorts are assessed under the new four-year framework.

From income year 2027 the five-to-four shortening reaches three further backward lookbacks. The extended fåmansföretag definition used for dividends and capital gains, the qualification tests in 57 kap. 4 § and the outsider rule in 57 kap. 5 § all move from a five-year to a four-year review periodSkatteverket. Qualification is otherwise judged on the income year plus the preceding period: whether the holder or a related party worked to a significant extent in the company, in a company it holds interests in, or in another fåmansföretag with the same or similar operations, including the ownership and transfer conditions for the same-activity test. The outsider rule, under which shares are normally non-qualified when qualifying outsiders hold a sufficient stake, is tested over the income year and the preceding period, counting indirect holdings as outsider-owned only if direct ownership would not have qualified them, and it does not apply where special reasons such as shareholder agreements or cross-holdings exist.

The rewritten page also restates the company tests in one place. Under the main definition a limited company is a fåmansföretag when at most four owners hold shares carrying more than half the votes, with members of one related-party circle counted as a single owner. The subsidiary special rule catches businesses split into independent branches under one person's effective control, and the extended definition aggregates owners who work or worked to a significant extent, with no upper limit on headcount or minimum stake. Listed companies, private housing companies, sole businesses, foundations and non-profit associations fall outside. Death estates step into the deceased holder's position, and equivalent foreign legal persons can be fåmansföretag with qualifying shares.

The legal basis is 56 and 57 kap. inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229), as applied in Skatteverket's Rättslig vägledning on qualified shares.