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Quick Summary
Virksomhedsordningen (VSO) lets a self-employed freelancer defer tax on profit left in the business at a flat 22% rate, instead of paying personal income tax on it the year it’s earned.
It’s relevant to freelancers and sole proprietors (enkeltmandsvirksomhed) who consistently earn more than they need to withdraw; it adds real bookkeeping work, so it isn’t automatically worth it for everyone.
The rate is unchanged for 2026, versus a marginal personal rate that can reach roughly 55–60% once you clear the topskat threshold of DKK 777,900.
If you freelance in Denmark through an enkeltmandsvirksomhed, Skattestyrelsen treats you and your business as the same legal person. Every krone the business earns counts as your personal income the year you earn it, whether you spend it or leave it sitting in a business account.
Virksomhedsordningen changes that, but only for the part of your profit you don’t withdraw. Elect into it, and retained profit gets taxed at a flat 22% instead of your marginal personal rate, which can run well past that once you clear the topskat threshold.
The catch: VSO postpones the tax bill on retained profit until you withdraw it. The benefit depends entirely on how much profit you actually leave in the business each year, and what your marginal rate looks like whenever you eventually take it out. That’s the calculation this article walks through.
The Three Effects of Electing VSO
VSO changes three things about how your business income is taxed, and only one of them is the headline deferral.
Income splitting. Part of your profit, calculated as a deemed return on the capital tied up in your business (your kapitalafkastgrundlag: broadly, business assets minus business debt), gets reclassified as kapitalindkomst instead of personal income. That slice skips the 8% AM-bidrag charged on personal income entirely. The rate used for this calculation, the kapitalafkastsats, is set once a year by Skattestyrelsen.
Skattestyrelsen hadn’t published the 2026 kapitalafkastsats or rentekorrektionssats as of August 2026. The 2025 rates were 2% and 5% respectively. Check skm.dk‘s satser page before relying on either figure for a return filed this year.
A full interest deduction. Outside VSO, private interest deductions above DKK 50,000 for a single person (DKK 100,000 for a couple) only get the reduced 18.60% rate rather than the standard 33.60%. Inside VSO, business interest is deducted in full against personal income: no cap, no reduced rate.
Deferral. This is the one that does the real work. Profit you leave in the business (opsparet overskud) is taxed at a flat 22% now rather than your full marginal rate. You settle the difference, credited for the tax already paid, whenever you actually withdraw it.
22% Now vs. Your Marginal Rate Later
These are approximate combined rates (AM-bidrag, bottom tax, an average municipal rate, and mellemskat/topskat where they apply). Your own municipality and church-tax status will shift the exact number slightly.
| Profit level | Without VSO (personal rate) | With VSO (retained profit) |
| Below DKK 641,200 | roughly 42% | 22% |
| DKK 641,200 – DKK 777,900 | roughly 49% | 22% |
| DKK 777,900 – DKK 2,592,700 | roughly 55%, capped at 52.07% (excl. AM-bidrag and church tax) before AM-bidrag | 22% |
| Above DKK 2,592,700 | roughly 60%, capped at 57.07% (excl. AM-bidrag and church tax) before AM-bidrag | 22% |
One exception: if your profit sits mostly within your personal allowance (DKK 54,100), withdrawing it and paying close to 0% beats leaving it in the business at 22%. VSO only wins once your marginal rate climbs meaningfully past that.
Case Study
Meet two freelance consultants, both billing roughly DKK 700,000 in profit this year, both taxed identically before any VSO election.
Freelancer A withdraws everything. She needs the full DKK 700,000 to cover her cost of living, her mortgage, and everything else. Whether she elects into VSO or not, all of it gets taxed as personal income the year she earns it, because she’s taking it all out. VSO adds a genuine slice of admin work, a separate business balance sheet, tighter bookkeeping, probably an accountant, for a benefit limited to the small kapitalafkast split. For her, the paperwork isn’t worth it.
Freelancer B leaves DKK 300,000 in the business. He only needs DKK 400,000 to live on this year. Without VSO, Denmark still taxes him on the full DKK 700,000 the year he earns it, because a sole proprietor and the business are legally the same entity; withdrawing less doesn’t defer anything on its own. With VSO, that retained DKK 300,000 is taxed at 22% now (roughly DKK 66,000) instead of his marginal rate of roughly 49% (roughly DKK 147,000). That’s about DKK 81,000 kept in the business this year rather than sent to Skattestyrelsen: money he can reinvest, hold as a buffer, or withdraw later in a lower-income year.
What VSO Costs You, and How Much Time You Have to Decide
VSO isn’t a box you tick on your tax return. You need a genuine annual account for the business, split cleanly from your personal finances, meeting not just the bogføringsloven but the extra standards set out in the Mindstekravsbekendtgørelsen. In practice, that usually means proper accounting software from day one, not a spreadsheet.
Billy (partnerlink/reklamelink) runs a full English interface, which matters if your Danish is still shaky. Dinero (partnerlink/reklamelink) is Danish-only but handles moms filing cleanly and costs less. We compare the two in detail in our Billy vs. Dinero guide. Either way, budget for an accountant, at least for your first year under the scheme; VSO mistakes are the kind of thing that get expensive on audit.
The good news: you don’t have to get this right on day one. You can elect into VSO, or unwind it, retroactively until 30 June of the second calendar year after the income year ends. That means you can see your actual full-year numbers, in an oplysningsskema you’ve already filed, before locking in the decision.
Tip
If you ever use a VSO business asset as security for a personal debt, or let your indskudskonto turn negative by funding the business with fresh personal borrowing, a corrective mechanism can treat the whole amount as a deemed withdrawal, taxed at your full marginal rate in one go. This most often catches freelancers who finance a car or a laptop personally and then move it into the business later. If you’re planning anything like that, get it checked before you do it, not after.
When to Get a Second Opinion Before You Elect
Electing into VSO is a real decision, not a formality, and unwinding it later can trigger its own tax bill. If your income varies a lot year to year, if you’re carrying personal debt alongside business assets, or if you’re weighing an exit or a sale of the business within the next few years, the interaction between your indskudskonto, your marginal rate at withdrawal, and Denmark’s 2026 bracket thresholds gets complicated fast.
A good rule of thumb: if the numbers in this article’s worked example sound like your situation, VSO is worth a real conversation with a revisor or registered accountant before you file your first oplysningsskema under the scheme. If you’re withdrawing everything you make each year regardless, it probably isn’t.
Bottom Line
For a freelancer who consistently leaves real profit in the business, VSO trades a flat 22% now for your full marginal rate later: a genuine deferral worth having. For a freelancer who spends what they earn, it’s extra bookkeeping with no upside. Run your own numbers before you elect, not after.
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.
