Buying Property in Sweden as a Portuguese Buyer: No Tax Treaty

Most Portuguese buyers ask what a Swedish home costs. A better first question is who taxes it. Portugal and Sweden have had no tax treaty since 1 January 2022.

Without a treaty, each country applies its own law in full. Sweden taxes a Portuguese owner's rental surplus at 30% and a sale gain at an effective 22%. Portugal taxes its residents on worldwide income, then gives a unilateral credit under Article 81 of the IRS code. In addition, since July 2026, registering a Swedish house requires a Swedish ID number.

This guide follows that tax trail. It is the part of a Swedish purchase that is different for a Portuguese buyer and for nobody else in the series.

Is there a tax treaty between Portugal and Sweden?

No. The Riksdag, Sweden's parliament, voted in 2021 to terminate the 2002 convention. Its Committee on Taxation report 2020/21:SkU35 sets out why. Portugal never ratified a 2019 protocol that would have let Sweden tax certain pensions paid to Portugal. Combined with Portugal's regime for non-habitual residents, some Swedish pensions went untaxed in both countries.

Portugal published the termination in its official gazette, the Diário da República, as Aviso n.º 2/2022, with effect from 1 January 2022. The most recent item we found in the Riksdag record is a September 2024 motion urging a new treaty. It states that Sweden has had no tax treaty with Portugal since 2 June 2021, and the Riksdag rejected it.

For a property owner, "no treaty" does not mean "no tax". It means neither country has agreed to hold back, and no treaty caps what either side can charge.

What does Sweden tax a Portuguese owner on?

The same things it taxes everyone on, under Swedish domestic law. Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, says on its page for owners of Swedish property living abroad that you file a Swedish tax return if you own property there and have rented it out or sold it. The 2026 deadline was 4 May. A resident abroad is not charged a late filing penalty up to 1 June.

What Sweden charges a private owner

Charge	Rate (%)
Rental surplus, private home		30.0%
Gain on selling a home (effective)		22.0%
Lagfart stamp duty, house		1.5%
Lagfart stamp duty, bostadsrätt		0.0%

• Rent. Skatteverket's rules for owning property deduct 40,000 kronor per property plus 20% of the rent, then tax the surplus at 30%.
• Sale. Skatteverket taxes 22/30 of the profit at 30% for a private home, and the same fraction for a bostadsrätt. On a 500,000 kronor gain, that works out to 110,000 kronor of tax.
• Registration. Lantmäteriet, the land registration authority, charges 1.5% plus 825 kronor for lagfart on a house. A bostadsrätt, a share in a housing cooperative, pays no stamp duty.

How does Portugal credit Swedish tax without a treaty?

Through Article 81 of the Código do IRS (CIRS), the Portuguese personal income tax code. The Autoridade Tributária, Portugal's tax authority, publishes the text. It gives residents with foreign income a credit for international double taxation equal to the lower of two amounts:

• the income tax paid abroad, or
• the part of the Portuguese IRS bill, calculated before the credit, that relates to the income the other country may tax.

Paragraph 2 of the same article limits the credit further when a treaty exists, to the tax the treaty allows. With Sweden there is no treaty, so paragraph 1 alone governs. Swedish rental income and the Swedish tax paid on it go on Anexo J, the foreign income schedule of the Modelo 3 return. The Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados, the Portuguese body of certified accountants, explains in a technical opinion that foreign income goes on Anexo J at its gross amount, and that the foreign tax must be proven by a document from the other country's tax authority.

Neither source settles where someone who splits the year between Lisbon and Stockholm is tax resident. That question belongs with a contabilista certificado.

From NIF to samordningsnummer: the ID rule since July 2026

In Portugal nothing happens without a NIF, the Número de Identificação Fiscal. Sweden now has the same gate for houses. Lantmäteriet states on its page for foreign buyers that transfers from 1 July 2026 need the new owner's Swedish personnummer or samordningsnummer, the coordination number. Without one, the application is held dormant and costs extra fees.

• Skatteverket's coordination number page lets you apply yourself on form SKV 7540, followed by an in-person ID check at a service centre with a passport or national identity card.
• Its processing times show up to 12 weeks before a caseworker picks up an individual application (read on 21 September 2026).

Our lagfart and coordination number guide covers the transition rules.

CPCV and sinal: what replaces them in Sweden

Nothing does. Under chapter 4, section 1 of the Jordabalken, the Swedish Land Code, a house is bought through a written deed signed by both parties. There is no promissory contract backed by a sinal before that. An accepted bid in a Swedish bidding round commits nobody.

The condomínio reflex also misleads. In a Portuguese propriedade horizontal you own your fraction. In a Swedish bostadsrätt the cooperative, the BRF (bostadsrättsförening), owns the building and can carry its own loans, which reach you through the monthly fee. Our guide to a BRF's interest rate sensitivity shows where that sits in the årsredovisning, the annual report.

Moving euros into a Swedish purchase

The agent will ask how you are paying. Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI), the estate agent regulator, requires agents to collect information on how a purchase is financed, from buyers as well as sellers. Enhanced checks apply to customers established outside the European Economic Area. Portugal is inside it, but the question still comes.

Borrowing in Sweden? Finansinspektionen, the financial supervisor, raised the loan cap for a home purchase from 85% to 90% on 1 April 2026. Banks set their own terms above that floor for borrowers paid in euro.

What the sources support

We do not give buying or selling advice, and nothing here says whether a Swedish home is worth buying. The sources support four points. There has been no Portugal and Sweden tax treaty since 1 January 2022. Sweden taxes a non-resident's rental surplus at 30% and gains on selling a home at an effective 22%. Portugal credits foreign tax only up to the limits in CIRS Article 81. A coordination number is now required before a house can be registered.

Our guide for Swedish buyers in Portugal covers the other direction. AiMYNDi reads a Swedish listing and the cooperative's årsredovisning and explains both in Portuguese. You can see an example of what a report looks like first.