Update on the implementation of minimum tax into Swedish law

On 13 December 2023, the Swedish Parliament accepted, with one addition, the proposed new Top-up Tax Act to implement the OECD’s Pillar Two global anti-base erosion rules (the GloBE Rules), as set out under the EU Minimum Tax Directive (2022/2523) (the “Directive”). The only change to the Government's proposed bill was the addition to include generally accepted accounting principles in the EU member states and EEA members states in the list of generally accepted accounting principles. Please also see our article on Proposal regarding a Top-up Tax Act to ensure minimum taxation.

The background to the Swedish proposal is the so-called Inclusive Framework with the aim of introducing a global minimum tax (Pillar II). In December 2022, the EU adopted the Directive, meaning that all member states must introduce national rules that mirror the Directive by the end of 2023. The Directive is in turn based on proposals from the OECD developed within the framework.

In Sweden, the first proposal to implement the Directive was presented in February 2023 (SOU 2023:6) to which an addition was made a month later through a memorandum (Fi2023/01114). In August 2023, the Swedish Government submitted the proposal to the Council on Legislation. The draft bill was basically unchanged compared to the initial proposal. The Council’s statement of opinion was highly critical to the short time which had been given to prepare and process the proposal and raised a number of considerations on the draft bill.

On 26 October, the Government submitted the final bill (prop. 2023/24:32). Other than editorial changes, the bill entailed a few material changes. For example, the proposal on representative liability (Sw. “företrädaransvar”) was scrapped. Also. the bill contained a number of clarifications and comments on, among other things, accounting standards.

The legislative wording accepted by the Parliament on 13 December 2023 included the Tax Committee's proposal to add generally accepted accounting principles in the EU member states and EEA member states to the list of generally accepted accounting principles in the new act.

The new act entered into force on 1 January 2024.