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.
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 2019, 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.
Your tax refund will be used to cover your overdue taxes on the day that your tax assessment ends. You can find the end date on the tax decision or in MyTax.
From the end date of assessment up to the 4th day of the following month, your tax refund will also be used to pay your upcoming taxes on their due dates – even if you make a payment on such a due date.
If the end date of your assessment process is 23 July or an earlier date in July, and you have a prepayment falling due on 23 July, the Tax Administration will use your refund on it even if you make a payment on the due date.
If your refund does not cover the entire prepayment, you must pay the remaining part of it by 23 July, i.e. on the due date.
If your refund is greater than the prepayment that falls due on 23 July, we will use your remaining refund on any instalment of inheritance and gift tax that will fall due on 1 August. If a balance still remains, we send it to your bank account on 4 September unless you have a debt undergoing recovery by enforcement.
What if I still pay my prepayment on the due date?
If you pay the entire amount of your prepayment on 23 July and we simultaneously use your refund on it, the amount you pay will be sent back to you in approximately one week – unless you have other unpaid taxes that have fallen due earlier or you have other upcoming instalments of prepayments.
Note: Keep yourself updated on your taxes and payments in MyTax.
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.
If the end date of your tax-assessment process is 1 August or in July, and you have inheritance tax or gift tax falling due on 1 August, the Tax Administration will use your refund on the tax even if you make a payment on the due date.
However, please note that we will use your refund on any unpaid taxes you may have from before. If you have any such tax, this will happen immediately on the date when your assessment ends. You can find the end date on the tax decision or in MyTax.
If the refund is not enough to settle the entire inheritance or gift tax, you must pay the remaining part by 1 August, the due date.
If the refund is greater than the instalment (falling due on 1 August) of inheritance and gift tax, we will transfer the rest of your refund to your bank account on 4 September, unless you have a debt undergoing recovery by enforcement.
What if I still make a payment of inheritance tax or gift tax on the due date?
If you pay the entire amount of your inheritance or gift tax on 1 August and if we simultaneously use your refund on it, the amount that you paid will be sent back to you in approximately one week, unless you have other unpaid taxes that have fallen due earlier, or unless you have other upcoming instalments of inheritance and gift taxes.
Note: Keep yourself updated on your taxes and payments in MyTax.
Your refund will invariably be used to cover your overdue taxes on the day when your tax assessment ends. You can find the end date on the tax decision or in MyTax.
From the end date of assessment up to the 4th day of the following month, your tax refund will also be used to pay your upcoming taxes on their due dates – even if you make a payment on such a due date.
If the end date of your assessment process is 12 July or an earlier date in July, and you have self-assessed taxes falling due on 12 July, the Tax Administration will use your refund on them even if you made a payment on the due date.
If the amount of your refund does not cover the entire sum of the self-assessed taxes, you must pay the remaining part by 12 July, i.e. on the due date.
If your refund is greater than the self-assessed tax that falls due on 12 July, the Tax Administration will use the remaining refund on a prepayment that will fall due on 23 July – if prepayments have been imposed on you – and on inheritance and gift tax falling due on 1 August, if you have any. If a balance still remains, we send it to your bank account on 6 September unless you have a debt undergoing recovery by enforcement.
What if I still make a payment of my self-assessed taxes on the due date?
If you pay self-assessed taxes on 12 July and if we simultaneously use your refund on them, the extra amount that you paid will either remain waiting for other upcoming taxes or be refunded. When you receive refunds depends on what refund time and refund limit you have selected in MyTax. Read more about refunds of self-assessed taxes.
If you have selected in MyTax that your payments should be used to pay for upcoming taxes, you can request your payment to be refunded back to you. See the guidance: How to request a refund of your payment in MyTax
Note: Keep yourself updated on your taxes and payments in MyTax.
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.
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.
Between your tax assessment end date and the 4th of the following month, your tax refund can be used to pay for any unpaid taxes you may have. The amount of unpaid taxes is subtracted from the refund amount. Tax refunds are also used for taxes that are in a payment arrangement.
You can see how your tax refund has been used in your tax summary. The summary is compiled at the end of each month. Read more about the summary.
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.