The Wonders of Danish Taxes

Now that the reality of moving to Denmark is slowly sinking in my sights are turning towards practicalities. I have heard that taxes in Denmark are eye-wateringly high so I decided to check things out for myself.

Tax

First of all I needed to figure out the details. In Malta, where I come from, it is relatively easy. As I haven’t lived there for a while now I asked a friend for help, and she immediately directed me towards the relevant government website which explains all the tax brackets quite clearly. The website also offers a tax calculator.

I tried to find a similar easy-to-understand description of the Danish system. However, even the google skills I have honed over years at university, including 3 years of doing a PhD, didn’t help! Most of the information I could find indicated that I would pay around 40-50% of my income in tax, but where within that range would it be?

With some help from Michael I, finally, came across a tax calculator by a fellow expat in Denmark, Paul Day. The spreadsheet is not the most user friendly application, but then that’s no fault of Paul I am sure! He also provides step-by-step information on how tax would have been calculated in 2009. (Printed the step-by-step guide takes up whopping 9 pages!)

It would be great if the information was updated as the calculator is every year. However, in the midst of a dearth of resources elsewhere this spreadsheet is the best resource I could find and does the job sufficiently. Do you know of any better resources? I would love to know!

Photo by TaxBrackets.org

5 thoughts on “The Wonders of Danish Taxes

  1. Judith Doyle

    We find Danish taxes quite easy because it is all online and really mostly done by the employer. There is a scheme for foreign researchers/academics to pay less (about 25%) so that might be of interest.

    Reply
    1. Ann Post author

      You’re right about employers doing most of it, but I was interested in getting an idea of how much of my pay will actually go to taxes before I arrived there. Unfortunately the researchers scheme doesn’t apply to me!

      Reply
    1. Ann Post author

      Hehe – unfortunately my Viking resource wasn’t too helpful, and I definitely am not of the ‘not knowing’ kind! I’ve been living as a student for too long I guess when it has been essential that I know that I have enough money to live on.

      Reply

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