Denmark's researcher tax scheme: 32.84 per cent tax, for seven years, and one chance

Yes, Denmark has a special tax scheme for people who come to work there, the forskerskatteordning: a flat 27 per cent tax plus the labour market contribution, together 32.84 per cent on your salary, for at most seven years. It applies to researchers with at least a doctorate and to highly paid employees with a guaranteed monthly salary of at least 65,400 kroner (2026). The finding at Skat: you can be accepted for it only once in your life, and only if you had no Danish tax liability in the ten years before. The trap is the timing: the salary must meet the requirement from the first working day.

Who is the scheme for?

For two groups, both employed by a Danish business or a Danish research institution:

• researchers: people who do research and have at least a doctorate, and who have been approved under the rules;
• highly paid employees: key employees with a guaranteed monthly salary of at least 65,400 kroner in 2026.

Both employee and employer must meet the conditions. You apply for registration with form 01.012.

What are the conditions?

Condition	What Skat says
Rate	27 per cent plus 8 per cent labour market contribution, together 32.84 per cent
Duration	at most 7 years (84 months), which can be split over several periods
Number of times	accepted once in your life
Salary (highly paid employees, 2026)	guaranteed at least 65,400 kroner a month
History	10 years without full or limited Danish tax liability on earned income
Arrival	you may come to live in Denmark at most a month before your first working day
Changing jobs	at most a month between the two jobs
Deductions	none, on your salary under the scheme

Income other than this salary is taxed normally. Income from real property, dividends or royalties from Denmark does not, according to Skat, exclude you. What does exclude you: a home in Denmark at your disposal that you move into, because then you are already fully tax liable.

The salary must be right from day one, and every year after. The scheme is a registration, not an approval: Skat checks continuously whether you meet the conditions, and if not, the tax for that period is levied under the ordinary rules. If you started in a year with a higher salary requirement, you cannot join later when the requirement drops; whoever registers late has meanwhile had Danish tax liability and drops out for that reason. Unpaid leave counts too: if your average monthly salary over the calendar year falls below the threshold, you no longer comply. Pregnancy and parental leave are disregarded in that test.

What does it yield compared with the ordinary system?

The ordinary Danish system also starts with the 8 per cent labour market contribution, and then works with brackets, to which the municipal tax is added (and for members the church tax). The state brackets in 2026:

Bracket	Rate	From (personal income after labour market contribution)
Bundskat	12.01 per cent	above your personal allowance
Mellemskat	7.5 per cent	above 641,200 kroner
Topskat	7.5 per cent	above 777,900 kroner
Toptopskat	5 per cent	above 2,592,700 kroner

Whoever meets the salary requirement earns at least 784,800 kroner a year and so is in the higher ordinary brackets. Against that, the scheme sets a flat 32.84 per cent on your gross salary. The drawback: no deductions at all on that salary. How the ordinary system and the preliminary assessment work further is in tax in Denmark.

What do I arrange, and when?

Discuss the scheme before you sign. The contract determines whether the guaranteed salary meets the requirement, and your employer must report the salary to Skat with its own code. If you come from the Netherlands without earlier Danish income from work, the ten-year rule is usually no problem; if you have ever worked in Denmark, count back. If you stop or leave, you report it via the same form 01.012; if you do not, according to Skat you lose the rest of your seven years. How the tax card fits into your first weeks is in the step-by-step plan for Denmark.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.6: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Denmark or go straight to step 4.6 in the open plan.