TL;DR
Sweden has four VAT rates: 25, 12, 6 and 0 per cent. An invoice that mixes them owes a separate base and a separate VAT figure for each rate it used. One blended percentage across the whole document fits no box on the VAT return, however neatly it adds up. Underneath that sit three arithmetic decisions that most invoicing software gets wrong at least once: discount is applied before VAT, rounding happens once per line rather than once at the end, and öresavrundning is a figure in its own right rather than a fudge inside the total.
The four rates
The rates a Swedish invoice may carry are 25, 12, 6 and 0 per cent, and nothing else. A typed 24 produces an invoice that is wrong in a way nobody notices for a quarter, which is why anything outside the list is refused at the edge rather than stored and discovered later.
Zero is not one thing. An export, a reverse charge inside the construction sector, and an exempt supply are all invoiced at zero and all land in different places in the books. That distinction is a fact about the sale, and only the company making it can state it — which is why zero-rated lines are treated carefully further down, and in the SIE4 export.
A three-rate invoice, worked
Take a fictional event company, Nordkust Event AB, invoicing a conference. Three lines, and each line carries the rate recorded on the article it was built from — which is the only place a rate can honestly come from. Deciding which supply belongs at which rate is Skatteverket's guidance and your accountant's judgement; the system's job is to carry what you recorded, per line, and never blend it.
| Line | Qty | Unit price | Rate on the article | Net | VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conference package, room and technology | 1 | 24 000,00 | 25 % | 24 000,00 | 6 000,00 |
| Refreshments | 48 | 245,00 | 12 % | 11 760,00 | 1 411,20 |
| Coach transfer, return | 2 | 4 350,00 | 6 % | 8 700,00 | 522,00 |
Net: 44 460,00 kr. VAT: 7 933,20 kr. Before rounding: 52 393,20 kr.
The total ends in twenty öre, so öresavrundning takes off 0,20 and the invoice comes to 52 393,00 kr.
Now the part that matters. What goes on the VAT return is three pairs:
- 25 %: base 24 000,00, VAT 6 000,00
- 12 %: base 11 760,00, VAT 1 411,20
- 6 %: base 8 700,00, VAT 522,00
The blended rate across this document is 7 933,20 / 44 460,00 = 17,84 per cent. There is no box for 17,84 per cent. A system that stores one VAT figure per invoice can produce a correct total and still leave somebody to take the invoice apart by hand at the end of the quarter, which is exactly the work the invoice was supposed to have done already.
So VAT is summed per rate, not once over the document, and the invoice prints the summary that way: rate, base, VAT, one row each.
Discount before VAT, and why the total does not reveal the error
A line of 2 480,00 kr with a 10 per cent discount at 25 per cent VAT:
- Discount first: 2 480,00 × 0,90 = 2 232,00 net. VAT 558,00. Total 2 790,00.
- Discount last: 2 480,00 + 620,00 VAT = 3 100,00, then × 0,90 = 2 790,00.
Both come to 2 790,00 kr, which is why this error survives so long. The customer's total is identical and nobody complains. What differs is the figure you declare: 558,00 in the first case and 620,00 in the second. VAT is owed on what was actually charged, not on a list price the customer never paid, so the second overstates the period by 62,00 kr on one line of one invoice.
Rounding once per line
Three lines, each 1,5 hours at 555,00 kr:
- Net per line: 832,50. VAT at 25 per cent: 208,125, which rounds to 208,13.
- Three lines as printed: 624,39.
- The exact sum, rounded once at the end: 624,375, which rounds to 624,38.
One öre apart. Only one of the two answers has the property a customer will actually check, which is that the numbers printed in the column add up to the number printed under them. So each line is rounded once, when it is written, and the totals are sums of rounded lines rather than roundings of exact sums.
The same principle applies further up: a quantity can be fractional — 2,5 hours, 13,75 square metres — and a percentage is a ratio, but the moment either produces an amount it becomes an integer number of öre and stays one. No floating-point value ever holds money.
Öresavrundning as its own figure
Sweden withdrew the 50-öre coin in 2010, so invoices are conventionally rounded to whole kronor. Half rounds away from zero, which is what Swedish accounting packages do and therefore what a reconciliation against one expects.
The adjustment is recorded as its own amount rather than folded into the total. Rounding a sum without saying what was rounded leaves the lines not adding up to the total, and the first person to notice is the bookkeeper reconciling against the bank statement. On the conference invoice above, the summary reads:
Summa exkl. moms 44 460,00
Moms 7 933,20
Öresavrundning -0,20
Att betala 52 393,00
Negative totals are the case worth getting right. A credit note is an invoice with the sign turned round, and rounding it towards zero would turn a refund of 100,50 into 100,00 — quietly keeping fifty öre of the customer's money. Half away from zero pays out 101,00.
What the document has to state
A Swedish invoice must carry the seller and the buyer, the seller's VAT registration number, the invoice number, the issue date, the date of supply where it differs from the issue date, the due date, every line, VAT summarised per rate, öresavrundning where it is not zero, the total, and the payment reference. When a ROT or RUT deduction applies it must also show the deduction and what the customer actually transfers, because the customer pays one half and Skatteverket the other, and a document showing only the total is one neither party can check.
Our invoice PDF is in Swedish, deliberately, and it is the only document in the product that is. The reader is not a user of the software but the customer's bookkeeper, who checks it against what a faktura is required to state. "Moms" and "Öresavrundning" are the names of those requirements rather than translations of them; an invoice headed "VAT summary" is one a Swedish accountant has to translate back before they can tick it off.
Crediting an agreed amount
One more place the rate has to be stated rather than inferred. A price settled at less than invoiced is credited as an amount with no line behind it — and that credit needs a VAT rate.
There is no safe way to guess it. An invoice carrying materials at 25 per cent and transport at 6 per cent has no single rate to infer, and picking the wrong one declares the wrong VAT for the period. So the rate is a required part of the instruction, checked against the four statutory ones and refused otherwise: Sweden charges 25, 12, 6 or 0 per cent and nothing else.
Crediting a line rather than an amount has no such problem: the mirrored line carries the rate the original carried, along with its article, its work order and its reported hours. A customer who queries a credit is owed the same answer as one who queries a charge.
Where the rates end up in the books
Sales are split by the rate they carry, and so is output VAT: 3001, 3002 and 3003 for sales at 25, 12 and 6 per cent, and 2611, 2621 and 2631 for the VAT on each. The pairing is not decoration — it is a check. A quarter's 3002 balance divided by its 2621 balance should come to 12 per cent, and it does not if a 12 per cent sale was posted to the 25 per cent account. The BAS accounts invoicing actually touches goes through that in full.