Sweden has no exit tax for individuals. What it has instead reaches further than many leavers expect: a presumption that keeps you an unlimited taxpayer for five years after you go, and a rule that keeps gains on your shares taxable in Sweden for ten years. Both bear directly on a US LLC you set up before, or just after, you leave.
Three ways to stay an unlimited taxpayer
Under chapter 3, section 3 of the Income Tax Act (inkomstskattelagen, IL) you are an unlimited taxpayer if you
- are resident in Sweden,
- stay in Sweden on a continuous basis, or
- have an essential connection (väsentlig anknytning) to Sweden and previously lived there.
An unlimited taxpayer is taxable on all income from Sweden and from abroad (3 kap. 8 §), and Skatteverket expects all of it, Swedish and foreign, in the Swedish income tax return. The third ground is the one that catches people who have already left.
Essential connection and the five-year presumption
IL 3 kap. 7 § lists what is weighed to decide whether a former resident has an essential connection:
- Swedish citizenship;
- how long you lived in Sweden;
- not being permanently settled in a particular place abroad;
- being abroad for studies or for health reasons;
- a dwelling in Sweden fitted for year-round use;
- your family in Sweden;
- carrying on business in Sweden;
- holding assets that give you, directly or indirectly, significant influence over a business in Sweden;
- owning real property in Sweden;
- similar circumstances.
Skatteverket weighs all circumstances together and says that an essential connection can exist even if only one of these applies.
The second paragraph of the same section reverses the burden of proof. For five years from the day you leave, you are deemed to have an essential connection unless you show that you do not. This applies to Swedish citizens and to anyone who lived or stayed in Sweden on a continuous basis for at least ten years. After the five years, Skatteverket says, you are a limited taxpayer unless it assesses that an essential connection still exists.
Deregistering does not settle any of this. Tax liability and population registration (folkbokföring) are two separate systems, each with its own concept of residence, and you can owe Swedish tax even though you are no longer registered in Sweden.
The ten-year rule (3 kap. 19 §)
Even once you are a limited taxpayer, you remain taxable in Sweden on capital gains on covered assets if at any time in the calendar year of the sale, or in the ten preceding calendar years, you lived in Sweden or stayed there on a continuous basis.
Covered: shares and similar equity rights (delägarrätter), interests in Swedish trading partnerships, and interests in foreign legal persons that are taxed at member level abroad.
Excluded: units in securities funds and special funds, and equity held in an investment savings account (ISK), subject to exceptions.
Foreign holdings: shares issued by foreign companies and interests in foreign legal persons taxed at member level are covered only if you acquired them while you were an unlimited taxpayer in Sweden.
For your LLC this has a direct consequence. An interest in a US LLC acquired while you were Swedish-resident can fall under the ten-year rule if the LLC is a foreign legal person taxed at member level. How Sweden classifies a particular LLC is not settled in the sources checked for this page, so treat that as open. And keep the timing in mind: if the five-year presumption still makes you an unlimited taxpayer when you form the LLC, the interest is acquired while you are unlimited.
Tax treaties often cut the rule back. The government's own 2022 directive notes that Sweden's claims under the ten-year rule are in many cases limited by tax treaty provisions. Read the treaty with your new country before you sell anything.
CFC rules and member-level taxation
While you are an unlimited taxpayer, chapter 39 a (the CFC chapter) can reach a foreign company you hold:
- you count as a shareholder if at the end of your tax year you, alone or with related persons, hold or control directly or indirectly at least 25 percent of its capital or votes;
- its income is low-taxed if it is untaxed, or taxed more lightly than Swedish tax would be on 55 percent of that income as the profit of a Swedish limited company running the same business.
Foreign legal persons that are taxed at member level abroad are not treated as legal persons for the CFC chapter. They fall under IL 5 kap. 2 a § instead: unlimited taxpayers who are members of such an entity are taxed on its income directly. The definition is a foreign legal person whose income is taxed to its members in the foreign state where it belongs. Which of the two routes applies to your LLC depends on that classification, which this page does not settle. Both routes bind you only while you are an unlimited taxpayer.
That ends with unlimited liability. A limited taxpayer counts as a CFC shareholder only if the shares belong to a permanent establishment in Sweden.
The exit-tax debate: proposals, not law
No exit tax for individuals is enacted. The official record so far:
- Dir. 2022:45. On 25 May 2022 the government appointed an inquiry to consider whether the ten-year rule should be replaced or supplemented by general rules taxing unrealised capital gains when an individual moves out. It was due to report by 15 February 2024.
- Motion 2025/26:3554. In the 2025/26 Riksdag session a Social Democrat committee motion asked the government to propose a system for taxing individuals who move out on capital gains accrued in Sweden.
- SkU15 (2025/26). The Tax Committee proposed that the Riksdag reject the motions on exit taxation and on a review of the ten-year rule, and stated that reform of the ten-year rule is currently being prepared within the Government Offices.
None of this is law. If your move is still some years away, watch the ten-year rule: that is where the committee says work is under way.
Deregistering from folkbokföring
If you can be expected to spend your nights outside Sweden regularly for at least one year, you are deregistered as emigrated. You must notify Skatteverket at least one week before departure, stating the departure date, through the e-service or on form SKV 7665 "Anmälan - Flyttning från Sverige" (English version SKV 7665b). For a move outside the Nordic region you are registered as emigrated from the day you move if you notify by that day; otherwise from the day Skatteverket receives the notice. Your citizenship is not affected and you keep your personnummer.
Skatteverket also points out that you may still have to file a Swedish income tax return after you no longer live or stay in Sweden.
The right sequence
What goes wrong if you skip a step
- You keep a year-round dwelling or your family stays: one factor alone can be enough for an essential connection.
- You rely on deregistration: folkbokföring and tax liability are separate systems.
- You form the LLC while still an unlimited taxpayer and sell within ten years: the gain can be taxable in Sweden, subject to the treaty.
- You stay unlimited and leave the LLC out of the return: Skatteverket expects all foreign income reported.
How the LLC is taxed on the US side is explained in how the LLC is taxed. Neighbouring countries: Norway, Denmark, Finland.
Sources
Checked 26 October 2026.
- Inkomstskattelagen (1999:1229), 3 kap. 3, 7, 8 and 19 §§, 5 kap. 2 a §, 39 a kap. 1, 2 and 5 §§: riksdagen.se
- Folkbokföringslag (1991:481), 20 and 27 §§: riksdagen.se
- Skatteverket, "Har du flyttat från Sverige?": skatteverket.se
- Skatteverket, "Flytta från Sverige": skatteverket.se
- Kommittédirektiv 2022:45: riksdagen.se
- Skatteutskottets betänkande 2025/26:SkU15 "Företag, kapital och fastighet": riksdagen.se
Your own case
This page is general information, not advice on your case. Your connection factors, your holdings and the treaty with your new country are checked in the consultation, held in English.
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