Tax-free Christmas gifts capped at SEK 600 for 2026; whole gift taxable above it

A Christmas gift to an employee is tax-free only when its market value stays at or below SEK 600 including VAT for income year 2026Skatteverket, up from SEK 550 for 2025Skatteverket. The gift must go to all employees or a larger group of employees. The SEK 600 limit is a threshold, not a deductible allowanceSkatteverket: a gift worth SEK 650 makes the entire SEK 650 taxable from the first krona, not just the SEK 50 above the limitFAR. The employer's costs for administration and transport to the recipient do not count toward the gift's value, and neither does the fact that it arrives as a wrapped parcel with a card.

Gift cards can be a tax-free Christmas gift on one condition: they must not be redeemable for cash. Cards, cheques and postal orders that can be exchanged for money count as cash and are not tax-free. A card that can only buy goods or services keeps the tax-free treatment within the SEK 600 limit. Asking a client early about planned gifts and their values lets a payroll consultant catch a taxable benefit before the year's last payroll runs instead of correcting it afterwards.

The staff Christmas dinner and party count as internal representation. The meal is then a tax-free benefit for the employee, including alcohol served within the internal representation. Free meals at staff parties, internal courses, information meetings and similar gatherings are tax-free because they qualify as internal representation rather than a meal benefit. The employer side has its own ceiling: deductions for surrounding costs are allowed for at most two staff parties per year.

A Christmas dinner with customers follows different rules as external representation. The costs are deductible only with an immediate connection to the business: the event must form part of business negotiations in the broad sense, such as negotiations on purchases or sales, talks with consultants and experts, or collective-agreement talks, whether or not they end in an agreement. Representation aimed at starting or maintaining a business relationship qualifies; repeated hospitality toward the same person or group can signal personal hospitality that rules out deduction. A staff party and a customer dinner in the same December therefore need different handling depending on whom the event targets and why.

Legal basis: 11 kap. 14 § and 16 kap. 2 § inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229), Skatteverkets allmänna råd SKV A 2025:9 on benefit values for 2026 and SKV A 2017:26 on representation deductions.