The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court: Director’s fees are usually income from employment
Director’s fees are usually income from employment
A decision of the high court in Sweden provides that certain fees paid to company directors are taxable as income from employment.
In a previous TaxNews we discussed a decision from The Council for Advance Tax Rulings (Skatterättsnämnden) concerning whether fees for the services of a company director may be invoiced from that director’s own private limited company.
Now The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has confirmed the Council’s ruling.
The SAC judgment reaffirmed the application of prior case law. In this regard it was concluded that the assessment criteria applicable to the invoicing of director’s fees is not affected by the extended definition of business activities under the revised Income Tax Act of 2009.
This means that, unless the invoices are related to temporary and specially defined assignments, the fee should be taxed as income from employment.
KPMG Comment
We recommend that both issuers and receivers of directors' fees should review their current arrangements and, where any fees are invoiced from the director’s own company consider whether these are in line with the SAC decision.
Please contact us if you want help to evaluate your situation.
Link to the article in Swedish
Contact
Johnny Ekström
johnny.ekstrom@kpmg.se