When you pay salary to an employee (this does not apply to freelancers), it is your responsibility as an employer to ensure that part of the salary is withheld and transferred to SKAT. This includes both tax and the labor market contribution (AM-bidrag).

The deadline depends on whether your business is categorized as “small” or “large” by SKAT. This classification is based on how much A-tax and AM-bidrag your business pays annually:

It’s important that Salary is informed about your company’s size, so we can ensure that reporting and payment are done on time. You can update this in Salary under Company, where you can select whether your company is “small” or “large.”

You can always check your company’s status on skat.dk or your registration certificate. SKAT will automatically update your classification if your payment levels change significantly.

Deadlines

Small business: The deadline is the 10th of the month following the salary period. For January, the deadline is January 17. If the 10th falls on a public holiday or weekend, the deadline moves to the next banking day.

Large business: The deadline is the last banking day of the month in which the salary is paid out.

You can always see the payment date under Transfers in the payroll run or under Company -> Transfers.

When you use Salary, we handle the reporting to SKAT in connection with the payroll. If you have a Transfer Service agreement, we will also make the payment of A-tax and AM-bidrag automatically and on time—so you don’t have to track the deadlines yourself.

You can always see when A-tax and AM-bidrag—that is, what is deducted from your employees' salary—is transferred to SKAT. You’ll find the payment date under Transfers in the payroll run or under Company -> Transfers.

If it says Transfer Service, the payments are made automatically.

If it says Manual, you’ll need to make the payment yourself.

Automatic Transfer

If you want to set up automatic payment with Transfer Service, you can read how to do it here.

If you already have a Transfer Service agreement and the deadline has not yet passed, you can switch to automatic transfer. See this guide for setup.

Manual Transfer

Payments to the tax account must be made via SKAT’s website. You can find the payment amount and date under Company -> Transfers.

If you find that a payment to SKAT has been refunded to your company’s NemKonto, it’s typically because the payment was made too early. By law, SKAT may not hold money from businesses for more than five working days if the amount exceeds the refund threshold. So if you pay A-tax or AM-bidrag more than five working days before the deadline, the amount will automatically be returned—unless it is below the threshold.

You can raise your refund threshold yourself:

The two most likely reasons are either that your account lacked sufficient funds when Transfer Service attempted to withdraw the tax amount, or that the tax was paid too early into the Tax Account (e.g. via manual payment), or that your company has incorrect tax settings in Salary.

Insufficient Funds in the Account

If tax payments are set to be made via Transfer Service, the amount is withdrawn on the actual payment date. If there are insufficient funds in the account, some banks may still show the amount as withdrawn, only to return it later. In such cases, you will need to manually transfer A-tax and AM-contribution via SKAT’s website.

Incorrect Tax Setup

If your company is set up in Salary as a large company, but it is actually classified as small, the tax will be transferred on the last banking day of the month in which the salary was paid.

According to law, SKAT is not allowed to hold funds from companies for more than five business days if the amount exceeds the company’s refund threshold. This means that if you pay A-tax or AM-contribution more than five working days before the deadline, the amount will automatically be returned—unless it is under the threshold.

You can adjust your company’s tax settings in Salary – see how in this guide.

Payment Made Too Early

As mentioned, SKAT may not legally hold payments for more than five business days if the amount exceeds the refund threshold. Therefore, if you pay A-tax or AM-contribution more than five business days before the due date, the amount will automatically be refunded—unless it falls below the threshold.

You can raise your refund threshold yourself:

As an employer, you're legally required to report salary information to SKAT every month—even in months when no employees receive salary. In these cases, you must submit a zero report (nulindberetning).

It’s never harmful to submit a zero report, even if salaries are processed in another system. However, failing to report at all when no salary has been paid can have financial consequences. You can read more about zero reporting in this article.

This is a common question when SKAT sends out reminders to companies—even though tax has been withdrawn from the bank account and Salary has made the payment.

The explanation lies in how the Tax Account (Skattekontoen) works. The Tax Account is exactly what the name suggests: an account with SKAT where all your company’s payments (e.g. VAT, A-tax, AM-contribution) are collected in one place. SKAT does not see what the payments are earmarked for—they only see if the account is in surplus or deficit.

SKAT applies payments retrospectively in order of due date. This means that if, for example, you owe:

and you haven’t paid the VAT, the Tax Account will show a DKK 10,000 deficit on April 1.

When Salary later pays DKK 20,000 into the Tax Account, the first DKK 10,000 will automatically be used to cover the VAT. That leaves only DKK 10,000 for the A-tax—and it appears as though the A-tax has not been paid in full, even though Salary sent the correct amount.

So this is not a mistake on Salary’s part—the money was paid, but SKAT prioritized it differently because of other outstanding items, such as VAT.

What Should You Do?

If you receive a reminder notice for A-tax or AM-contribution:

If you're working with freelancers and paying them fees (honorars), the freelancer is responsible for handling their own tax payments. This means Salary only handles the reporting to SKAT and, if applicable, the payout of the fee to the freelancer.