Fradrag: which deductions you can add
In short
is the part of your income no tax is taken from. The more lawful deductions you have, the less tax — both every month and in the final reckoning for the year.
The split is simple: what institutions report appears by itself, what only you know will never appear. The bank reports the interest on your loan. The union reports your membership fee. But nobody except you knows that you travel 30 km to work every day.
deductions go into the forskudsopgørelse for the current year and into the årsopgørelse for the past one
Does this apply to me?
Yes, if you work in Denmark. The people who miss out most are those with a long commute and those with a private loan.
Steps
Befordringsfradrag: count the kilometres first
This is the most commonly missed deduction. The rule: what counts is the trip there and back in one day, and it has to be more than 24 km. Exactly 24 or less — nothing.
How you travel does not matter: car, bus, train or bicycle all give the same. What matters is the real distance and the real working days.
the rate per kilometre is different every year — use the rate for the year you are counting
Count working days, not calendar days
And here is the most typical mistake: people multiply the kilometres by 365 or by 220 “because that is roughly it”. What you have to count is the days you really did travel to work.
Holiday, sick days, public holidays and days at home do not count. SKAT does check this.
Union and A-kasse
Fees to a fagforening reduce your tax, but not without limit: there is a yearly cap. Contributions to an [[a-kasse|A-kasse]] and to efterløn have no cap — they count in full.
Usually both the union and the fund report these amounts themselves. Your job is to check that they really did appear.
if you pay union fees in Ukraine or another country, that is a different field, and you enter it yourself
Interest on loans — and the private loan trap
The bank and the mortgage provider report the interest for you. A private loan does not. If you borrowed from a person against an IOU, that interest will appear nowhere until you enter it yourself.
Spouses can move this deduction between each other in TastSelv.
Home and services: servicefradrag
The deduction for household services — cleaning, window cleaning, childminding — is called servicefradrag. It has been around for years, and from 2025 it was widened. Håndværkerfradrag is the one that was abolished in 2022 and brought back from 2025, now in a "green" form: it covers energy saving and climate-proofing, and it applies to a holiday home as well as your permanent one.
The conditions are strict: only for the labour, not for the materials, cashless only, and the invoice has to carry the CVR number of whoever did the work.
paid in cash — no deduction, no exceptions
Enter it — and check that it registered
Deductions for the current year go into the — and your tax rate changes as soon as your next pay. Deductions for last year go into the .
After the change press Beregn, look at the new [[traekprocent|trækprocent]] and confirm with Godkend.
Guide: forskudsopgørelse for next year →What you will need
- MitID on your phone
- Distance from home to work, km — both ways
- Number of working days in the year
- Receipts for your union and A-kasse payments
- The private loan agreement, if you have one
- Invoices for the work, with a CVR number
Danish words you will see
- Fradrag
- A deduction: the amount that is not taxed.
- Befordringsfradrag
- A deduction for the journey to work, if the round trip is more than 24 km a day.
- A-kasse
- An unemployment insurance fund. Membership is voluntary and you pay for it.
- Personfradrag
- The tax-free part of your yearly income that everyone has. It is the figure on your skattekort.
- Trækprocent
- The rate of tax withheld from your pay. It comes from your skattekort.
- Forskudsopgørelse
- The preliminary tax assessment for the year. It opens in November.
Common mistakes
- Counting the commute for every day of the year. Only real working days. Holiday and sick days do not count.
- Counting the distance one way. The 24 km threshold is there and back together.
- Using the rate from the wrong year. The rate per kilometre changes every year, and in 2026 it is temporarily raised as well.
- Expecting the interest on a private loan to appear by itself. It will not. You enter it by hand.
- Paying the tradesman in cash. Cash automatically kills the deduction for the work.
Need to talk to a human?
SKAT answers questions about specific deductions by phone and in English. If you are a union member, they will help you work out the commute too.
Where to turn and what to say →Where this information comes from
- Checked against sources: 21.09.2026
- Sources: skat.dk — Deduction for transport between home and work, skat.dk — Deduction for trade union fees etc., skat.dk — Deduction for interest expenses, skat.dk — Home improvement and household services
This is an explanation in plain words, not legal advice. The final word always belongs to the authority. How we check
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