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Deregistering a limited company in bankruptcy

When a limited company is declared bankrupt, the Swedish Tax Agency carries out all the necessary deregistrations.

If the company is in bankruptcy, it may not carry on any activity involving the obligation to keep accounts and therefore the Tax Agency revokes the company's F-tax. 

When the company is declared bankrupt, the Tax Agency receives information about it from the District Court. 

What the Tax Agency does 

  • revokes the company's F-tax approval 
  • deregisters the company as an employer. 
  • deregisters the company from VAT 

If the receiver decides to continue to operate the activity, it is the bankruptcy estate that becomes liable for tax. The bankruptcy estate also becomes an employer and receives a special company registration number. 

F-tax 

The company’s preliminary tax is called special A-tax (SA-tax) after the Tax Agency has revoked the company's approval for F-tax. 

The preliminary tax is not reduced just because the company has been declared bankrupt. If the company does not submit a new preliminary income tax return, the company will continue to pay the same preliminary tax as before.  

Read about and submit a preliminary income tax return to the Swedish Tax Agency (in Swedish)

Employer contributions 

The business's activities cease because of the bankruptcy decision. Therefore, the business cannot be registered as an employer for the period after the bankruptcy decision. The company must declare employer's contributions and tax deducted for all accounting periods up to the date of the bankruptcy decision. 

If the company has nothing to declare, the button "Deklarera noll (Declare nothing)" button in the Swedish Tax Agency's PAYE Tax Return service, and if you want to declare zero on a form, complete only the form Arbetsgivardeklaration Huvuduppgift (Employer Tax Return Main Declaration) (SKV 4786). Complete boxes 487 and 497 with a zero (0). Leave the other boxes blank. 

VAT 

The business's activities cease because of the bankruptcy decision. Therefore, the company cannot be registered for VAT for the period after the bankruptcy decision. The company must declare VAT for all accounting periods up to the date of the bankruptcy decision. 

If the company has no VAT to declare, enter zero (0) in the "Moms att betala eller få tillbaka” ("VAT to be paid or recovered") box. 

Company address

The Swedish Tax Agency needs to stay in contact with the company even after the bankruptcy. For example, this may regard questions concerning the activity before a bankruptcy decision or the submission of income tax returns. In this case, it is important that the Tax Agency has the right address. If the company no longer has an address, the Tax Agency needs a c/o address for a representative of the company. You report the new address to the Tax Agency.  

Change address and other information

Has the company reported a special tax address? 

If the company has a special tax address, the Swedish Tax Agency will remove it in connection with the bankruptcy. 

E-services and representatives 

Have you reported any person(s) as authorised to look at/provide information on the company's behalf via the Swedish Tax Agency's e-services? If so, the Tax Agency will deregister this representative in connection with the bankruptcy.  

Remember that you may need to notify other public authorities that you are closing down your activities if you have previously registered your activities with them. 

Remember that you may need to notify other public authorities that you are closing down your activities if you have previously registered your activities with them.

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