This guidance is for individual taxpayers and for the self-employed. Guidance on tax refunds paid to corporate entities is available here.
Your will receive your refund in the time between July and December
There is no longer a single refund date for all taxpayers. Most individual taxpayers get their tax refund in August or September, and the year’s last refunds will be made in December.
The refund date varies by the end date of your tax assessment process. It ends at different times for different people. The end date valid for you is stated in your tax decision.
| End month of tax assessment | Date when refund is paid to bank account |
|---|---|
| May | 6 July 2020 |
| June | 4 August 2020 |
| July | 4 September 2020 |
| August | 6 October 2020 |
| September | 4 November 2020 |
| October | 3 December 2020 |
Refunds can be postponed
If you or your spouse made changes to the tax return, the payment date of a tax refund will change. Its amount may change as well. We will send you a new tax decision with information on the amount and date in late October if not earlier.
Another reason that your refund date is postponed may be that the Tax Administration does not have your correct bank account number. Yet another reason may be that we cover some unpaid taxes with the amount that would otherwise be refunded.
Read more on why a refund may be postponed.
Interest on refunds
The Tax Administration pays interest on refunds. However, the interest is not shown on your tax decision. Instead, the Tax Administration will add the interest to your refund when paying it. In 2020, the interest rate is 0.5%.
Frequently asked questions
The end date of your tax assessment is indicated by your tax decision and also in MyTax. You cannot hurry up the assessment process, and you cannot change your refund date into an earlier date. If the date when you receive your refund has changed, this is stated on your revised tax decision or in MyTax. A postponed refund date cannot be changed into an earlier date, not even if you contact the Tax Administration.
If you have not submitted your bank account number to the Tax Administration in time, your tax refund is paid to you in the form of a money order. If your refund has already been transferred to the bank to be cashed as a money order, the Tax Administration cannot re-route it to your bank account.
You have 28 days to cash your money order. The time limit starts on the date stated on the order. If you do not cash the money order, the bank will re-send the refund back to the Tax Administration. After this, we can pay the refund to your bank account about one week after you have sent us your bank account number. You can do so in MyTax.
Yes. If you or your spouse make changes to your respective tax returns, the tax assessment process takes longer and the refund date is postponed. In these circumstances, you get a new, revised tax decision. The decision will indicate your new refund date. The last payments of refunds will be made in December.
There is no single refund date for all taxpayers anymore. Previously, everyone received their refund on the same date in December after the end of tax assessment. However, now the tax assessment process ends at different times for different people. You will receive your refund within two months after your personal tax assessment end date. Most people will now receive their tax refunds in August. However, some will receive their refunds in December as before.
No. You cannot transfer your refund to your spouse, i.e. you cannot settle your spouse’s back taxes with an amount that will be refunded to you.
Your refund can be used to settle any taxes you are accountable for. The amount of unpaid taxes will therefore be subtracted from your refund amount.
If we use your refund to pay for a partnership’s tax debt, we will notify you as well as the partnership.