Gifts and inheritances of qualified shares carry over tax values

Transferring qualified shares in a fåmansföretag to an individual by inheritance, will, gift or division of property is not a disposal.Skatteverket The giver pays no tax on the transfer.Skatteverket The recipient steps into the giver's tax position in several respects, as if the recipient had owned the shares all alongSkatteverket, but must separately determine whether the shares are qualified for the recipientSkatteverket, since that decides whether future dividends and gains split between capital and employment income under the 3:12 rulesSkatteverket.

The carry-over covers the cost base, the computation of the annual allowance and the saved dividend allowance.Skatteverket The recipient takes over the giver's cost baseSkatteverket, normally what the giver paid plus any unconditional shareholder contributions the giver could not reclaim. If the shares are qualified for the recipient and the giver owned them at the start of the year, the recipient also takes over the right to compute the annual gränsbelopp for them. Where the giver already received a dividend or sold shares during the transfer year and therefore already computed the annual allowance, the recipient cannot compute a new allowance for the same year, but may still use any saved allowance.

The salary-based component follows its own timing. For the transfer year the recipient computes salary-based allowance from the prior year's cash compensation, stepping into the giver's position. For the year after the transfer the computation starts from the transfer year's compensation but on the recipient's own footing, counting only salary paid during the part of the transfer year the recipient owned the shares.

Partial gifts split every amount pro rata. A giver of 25 of 100 shares keeps 75 per cent of the cost base and of the total allowance, while the recipient takes over 25 per cent of each: cost base, annual allowance and saved allowance alike. The recipient's allowance for the following year builds on personal circumstances plus the inherited saved allowance.

Death estates apply the same rules as if the deceased still owned the shares, with estate co-owners treated as related parties of the deceased holder. The transfer must be to a physical person; the no-disposal treatment does not extend to other transferees.

The legal basis is 44 kap. 21 § inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229), as applied in Skatteverket's guidance on gratuitously acquired shares and on shares transferred by inheritance, gift or division of property.