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Quick Summary
A-income is taxed automatically by your employer before it reaches your account. B-income isn’t: the full gross amount lands in your bank, tax unpaid. Relevant to expats in Denmark earning freelance fees, consulting income, or any payment from a foreign employer while resident here. Save roughly 45% of every B-income payment. Update your forskudsopgørelse on TastSelv whenever your B-income changes; Skat will adjust your monthly withholding on your main salary automatically.
Denmark withholds A-income tax before you see the money. B-income works the other way: you receive the gross amount, and the tax is entirely your responsibility to set aside and report.
Get this wrong and you’ll face a restskat bill (outstanding tax) the following spring. Get it right, and side income works cleanly alongside your Danish salary.
The 2026 tax reform also changed the bracket structure for the first time since 2009, splitting the old single topskat into three separate rates. If your combined A- and B-income pushes you across a bracket threshold, that matters for how much to save.
A-income and B-income: the core difference
| A-income | B-income | |
| Who withholds tax? | Your employer (required by law) | Nobody. You do it yourself. |
| What hits your account? | Net (after AM-bidrag + income tax) | Gross: the full amount |
| Typical sources | Danish employer salary | Freelance, consulting, foreign employer, royalties |
| Where it’s reported | Automatically via your skattekort | Via your forskudsopgørelse and årsopgørelse |
A-income is the default Danish employment experience. Your employer checks your digital tax card (skattekort) each month and strips out the 8% AM-bidrag and your income tax rate before depositing your net pay. Nothing further to do.
B-income puts that obligation on you. Freelance fees, payments from foreign companies while you’re resident in Denmark, consulting honorariums: all of these arrive gross. If you receive DKK 10,000 for a project, you’re holding a few thousand kroner that belong to Skat. Spending it all isn’t borrowing from a friendly source.
The 2026 tax brackets: why B-income stacks
From 1 January 2026, Denmark replaced the single topskat with three separate upper brackets. The structure now looks like this:
| Bracket | Rate | Threshold (after AM-bidrag) |
| Bundskat (bottom) | 12.01% | Above personal allowance of DKK 54,100 |
| Mellemskat (middle) | 7.50% | Above DKK 641,200 |
| Topskat (top) | 7.50% | Above DKK 777,900 |
| Top-topskat | 5% | Above DKK 2,592,700 |
Municipal tax (averaging around 25.049%) runs on top of all of this.
The stacking problem: your B-income sits on top of your A-income when brackets are calculated. If your salary is DKK 610,000 and you earn DKK 50,000 from a freelance project, that DKK 50,000 doesn’t get taxed at your normal rate. It pushes into the mellemskat bracket, meaning those freelance hours are taxed at a higher marginal rate than your regular office days.
This isn’t a trap. It’s just the progressive system working as designed. But it does mean the effective tax rate on B-income can be higher than people expect.
In Short
B-income is stacked on top of A-income for bracket purposes. Even a modest side income can push you into mellemskat if your salary is already close to the threshold. The middle bracket kicks in at DKK 641,200 after AM-bidrag.
How to calculate what to set aside
The mechanics are straightforward. Here’s an example using a DKK 20,000 project payment.
Example: DKK 20,000 project payment (2026)
Step 1: AM-bidrag (8%): DKK 20,000 x 0.08 = DKK 1,600 deducted first.
Remaining: DKK 18,400.
Step 2: Income tax. Check your forskudsopgørelse on TastSelv for your trækprocent (withholding rate). Most expats land between 37% and 42%, depending on municipality. Using 39%:
DKK 18,400 x 0.39 = DKK 7,176.
Step 3: Total to set aside: DKK 1,600 + DKK 7,176 = DKK 8,776.
Take-home: DKK 11,224.
A rough rule of thumb: set aside 45% of every B-income payment. It’s slightly conservative, but a small refund in March beats a surprise bill.
Your actual trækprocent is on your forskudsopgørelse in TastSelv. Use that number, not an estimate. The figure changes year to year and varies by municipality.
Two ways to pay your B-tax
You can handle B-income tax proactively (Skat adjusts your monthly withholding) or reactively (you pay directly after the fact). Most people with regular B-income find the proactive route simpler.
| Method | Best for | What happens |
| Update your forskudsopgørelse | Regular or predictable B-income | Skat reduces your monthly tax-free allowance. Your employer withholds slightly more each month, effectively collecting the B-tax through your salary. |
| Pay directly via TastSelv | One-off payments | Pay via MobilePay or Dankort. You must still report the income in your årsopgørelse; the payment alone doesn’t tell Skat what the money was for. |
To update your forskudsopgørelse: log into TastSelv, open your preliminary income assessment for 2026, and enter the expected gross B-income in field 210 (honorariums/fees) or field 221 (profit from own business). Skat recalculates automatically.
Tip
Update your forskudsopgørelse whenever your B-income expectations change, not just once at the start of the year. A DKK 50,000 project in October that you haven’t accounted for will show up as restskat the following March. The update takes about two minutes in TastSelv.
What happens if you don’t pay on time
If you end up with outstanding tax (restskat) after your årsopgørelse is issued in March, the cost depends on when you pay.
| Period | Rate |
| 1 January to 1 July (voluntary payment) | 3.70% annual rate, calculated daily from 1 January |
| Not paid by 1 July | 5.70% surcharge added to the total outstanding amount |
| Amount exceeding DKK 25,368 | Collected in separate instalments in August, September, October |
The 3.7% rate applies only if you pay before 1 July. Miss that date and a flat 5.7% surcharge replaces it. For amounts above the instalment threshold, Skat collects the excess in three chunks across August, September, and October. It doesn’t disappear, it just spreads out.
Paying as you go, via a properly updated forskudsopgørelse, eliminates this entirely.
Deductions for B-income earners
B-income from a genuine business (as opposed to ad hoc honorariums) lets you deduct direct business expenses off your gross profit before it’s reported. This is different from the employee expense rules.
If you’re a salaried employee who also earns B-income as a freelancer, the employee expense deduction threshold of DKK 7,600 in box 58 of your årsopgørelse applies to work-related costs claimed in your employee capacity : not to B-income business costs.
| Expense | Deductible? | Condition |
| Equipment (camera, computer) | Yes | Must be used specifically for the B-income work, not general private use |
| Software subscriptions | Yes | If used for the B-income activity |
| Mileage to client (up to 120km) | DKK 2.28 per km | Business travel to clients; not commuting to a fixed workplace |
| Work clothing | Only if specialised | Safety gear, uniforms (not a suit for a presentation) |
| Employee expenses (box 58) | Yes, above DKK 7,600 | Only relevant if you’re also a salaried employee claiming work expenses |
The hobby/business distinction matters for how SKAT treats your deductions. If Skat decides your activity is a hobby rather than a business, you can’t deduct expenses against it. The line isn’t always obvious. It depends on regularity, profit intent, and professional setup. If you’re earning meaningful B-income consistently, that conversation deserves proper advice.
Seek Advice
If your B-income is recurring, growing, or involves complex expenses, the point where it’s worth getting a Danish accountant or tax adviser to look at your setup is earlier than most people think. The cost of getting the hobby/business classification wrong (or missing deductions) usually exceeds the adviser’s fee.
Flags specific to expats
A few situations where the standard B-income rules interact with other parts of the expat tax picture:
| Situation | What to know |
| Forskerordning (expat tax scheme) | B-income can disqualify you from the scheme or complicate it. The scheme requires that qualifying income meets specific conditions. Any B-income earned while on the scheme should be reviewed by a specialist before you file. |
| Income from a foreign employer | If your employer has no Danish legal presence, you may need to handle all withholding yourself, including AM-bidrag. This applies even if the work is done from Denmark. |
| VAT registration (moms) | If your B-income exceeds DKK 50,000 in taxable sales within a 12-month period, you must register for VAT and charge 25% moms. This is a legal requirement. You apply via Virk.dk for a CVR number with moms registration. |
The forskerordning interaction is the highest-stakes scenario here. Getting B-income classification wrong while on the expat scheme can unwind the scheme entirely, with back-tax consequences. This is exactly the point where a cross-border tax specialist earns their fee.
Bottom Line
Set aside roughly 45% of every B-income payment from day one. Update your forskudsopgørelse when your income changes. The restskat bill in March is rarely a surprise to people who’ve done both, and almost always a surprise to people who haven’t. If you’re on the forskerordning or earning from a foreign employer, get specialist advice before you file. The cost of getting it wrong is higher than the cost of getting it right.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or investment advice. Figures reflect publicly available data at time of writing. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation. See our full disclaimer.
