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Everything About Employee Tax Cards

Here you can read how Salary retrieves your employees’ tax cards as well as frequently asked questions.

Veronika avatar
Written by Veronika
Updated today

As a general rule, Salary always retrieves the employee’s tax card automatically via information from the Danish Tax Agency (Skat). It is the employee’s current tax card that is fetched, so the employee must contact Skat if the information appears to be incorrect.

You can view employee tax cards and request a new one under the Tax Card tab on the employee profile.



FAQ

Generelt:

What types of tax cards exist?

Main card, secondary card, and exemption card are different types of tax cards that the Danish Tax Agency uses to determine how much tax should be deducted from your income. Here’s an explanation of each:

Main Card
Used for your primary income (e.g., full-time job or student grants).

Includes:

  • Personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free annually)

  • Tax rate (your withholding rate)

The employer deducts tax based on both the tax rate and the allowance.
May only be used at one place at a time – where you have your main income.

Secondary Card
Used for secondary income, e.g., a side job or additional earnings.

Includes:

  • Only the tax rate, no allowance.

You pay tax on the full income without any tax-free allowance.

Exemption Card
A special tax card meaning you don’t pay tax until you’ve earned up to your exemption limit (typically around DKK 40,000 per year for young people/students).

Commonly used by young people or students with low incomes.
Once the limit is reached, regular tax applies (automatically switches to a secondary card).

How do I change my employee’s tax card?

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If you need to change the employee’s tax card from secondary to main/exemption card or vice versa, follow this guide.


Guide:

1. Go to the Employees tab, select the employee, and open the Tax Card tab.

2. Change the card type in the drop-down menu and click Request a New Tax Card.

3. It typically takes about an hour before the new tax card is retrieved.

Why is my employee being taxed at 55% ("No tax card")?

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If the Tax Card tab shows No tax card, it means the employee doesn’t have an active tax card. If no data appears at all, follow this guide.

How to fix the issue
The "No tax card" error occurs when the employee is not pre-registered with Skat. This can happen if the employee is new to the labor market (e.g., a youth worker) or has been self-employed and therefore doesn’t have a regular employee registration. Without an active eTax card, 55% tax must be withheld by default until a tax card is registered.

To obtain a tax card, the employee must log in to Skat.dk and update their preliminary income assessment. The employee must ensure that the change applies to the current month if it should take effect immediately (Skat’s default is the following month). Once done, we will automatically receive the new tax card.

Note:

  • It may take several days before the new tax card appears in our system, even if it’s visible on Skat.dk.

  • It’s important to complete this well before payroll processing.

Why is my employee being taxed at 55% (Tax card not retrieved)?

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If there is no data under the Tax Card tab, this could be due to two reasons: either the CPR number is incorrect, or the employee was just created. If you see a card labeled No tax card, follow this guide.

New employee:
Right after creating an employee, we don’t yet have a tax card because Skat must first send it. This may take a couple of hours, sometimes a day.

Incorrect CPR number:
If you entered the wrong CPR number or received an incorrect one from the employee, no tax card will be retrieved. In such cases, you will be notified in the message center and during payroll. You need to correct the CPR number and then request a new tax card under the employee’s Tax Card tab.

My employee’s tax rate is too high

If your employee’s tax rate on the Salary payslip appears higher than what they see on Skat.dk, this can be due to two main reasons:

1. Tax card not yet updated in Salary. If the Tax Card tab shows No tax card, the employee doesn’t have an active tax card. Follow this guide.

2. Wage garnishment – automatic deduction due to debt.
This is the most common reason for a higher tax rate. Public authorities can collect debt directly from wages.

When part of the salary is used to pay off debt, the tax rate on the tax card is increased, meaning less net pay.

Important to know:

  • You, as the employer, will not be notified about the garnishment.

  • It’s not visible on the tax card itself but is added to the tax rate.

  • It’s the employee’s responsibility to check and clarify if wage garnishment applies.

You can refer the employee to this page for more information:
https://gaeldst.dk/borger/hvis-du-ikke-betaler-din-gaeld/vi-kan-traekke-en-del-af-din-indkomst

How the employee can check for wage garnishment:

  1. Go to tastselv.skat.dk and log in

  2. Select "Skatteoplysninger"

  3. In the left menu, choose "Søg i Indkomstoplysninger"

  4. Find the section "Lønindeholdelse" and click “Vis evt. lønindeholdelse for år”

  5. Select "Hent oplysning" to view the details

My employee wants to use their exemption card (frikort/free card)

If your employee currently uses a main or secondary card, they must change their tax card themselves at Skat.dk. Salary will automatically receive the updated card.

Note:
Although the new card appears immediately on Skat.dk, it may take several days before it's received by our system. This is because Skat updates internal records faster than they distribute data externally.

My employee wants to use a main/secondary card instead of an exemption card (frikort/free card)

If your employee currently uses an exemption card, they must change their tax card themselves at Skat.dk. Salary will automatically receive the updated card.

Note:
Although the new card appears immediately on Skat.dk, it may take several days before it's received by our system. This is because Skat updates internal records faster than they distribute data externally.

Why is no A-tax being deducted on the payslip?

If you see that no A-tax has been deducted from an employee’s payslip, it's usually because their salary is below the monthly tax-free allowance.

To check the allowance:

1. Go to the employee’s profile and click on the Tax Card tab

2. Here you’ll see the employee’s monthly allowance.

If the salary consistently falls below the allowance threshold, no A-tax will be deducted – this is fully compliant with the rules.

Receiving and Updating Tax Cards

How long does it take from when an employee makes changes on Skat.dk to it being reflected in Salary?

When the employee makes changes to their preliminary income assessment at Skat — for example, by activating their exemption card or adjusting income and allowance — we automatically receive the updated tax card.


Although it may be visible immediately on Skat.dk, it can take several days before it's sent to our system. This is because Skat updates internal records faster than they distribute them externally.

I just created the employee – when will the tax card arrive?

Response times from eIncome can vary significantly when creating a new employee, as the employee must first be registered to your company in the eIncome system. Expect a minimum of 3 hours, but in some cases, it can take up to 24 hours before we receive the tax card. For this reason, we recommend creating new employees well in advance of payroll processing.

The system does not prevent you from running payroll even if the tax card hasn’t yet been received, but you should be aware of the following:

  • Tax will be calculated using a default withholding rate of 55%, with no personal allowance

  • eIncome may reject the payroll report if the employee hasn’t been properly registered

  • You may need to submit the payroll manually once the registration is approved

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