Household tax relief retains popularity

In the last 12 months, nearly 890,000 people have claimed a tax deduction for work carried out on and in their homes, according to Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) figures.

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Skatteverket has paid out over 10.3 billion kronor ($1.34 billion) to nearly 67,000 companies that have performed the work under the so-called ROT deduction for renovations on the home and RUT deduction for cleaning and home help inside the home.

A year ago, Skatteverket introduced a reformed invoice model, meaning that the customer can receive the deduction directly on the invoice. From there, it is up to the company performing the job to apply for payment from Skatteverket.

"The first year with the invoice model shows that the household deduction has become very popular," said Daniel Hedin Edlund at the tax agency in a statement. "We have received far more applications than anyone had anticipated."

For renovation jobs in the first year from July 1st to June 30th, 9.4 billion kronor was paid out to to 55,367 companies. For household work in the first year, 900 million kronor was paid out to 11,398 companies. A total of over 647,935 people bought renovation services and over 238,583 households used household services.

For renovations, taxpayers can receive a tax credit of 50 percent of labour costs up to 100,000 kronor per year. For housework, each taxpayer can receive up to 50,000 kronor in tax reductions per year.