Tax surcharges – should you consider a reassessment?
For companies that have been issued a tax surcharge due to errors in their tax return, there may be reason to consider requesting a reassessment or appealing the surcharge decision. This follows two landmark rulings from the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden (HFD) delivered in October 2025. A request for reassessment may be particularly appropriate in cases where the surcharge is based on information that appears unreasonable, or where contradictory information in the return indicates an error.
The Swedish Tax Agency may impose a surcharge if incorrect information has been provided in the tax return. As a rule, information is considered incorrect if it is erroneous or if information that should have been included has been omitted. However, an incorrect or omitted detail is not always deemed to constitute incorrect information in the legal sense. One example is when the Tax Agency’s so-called special duty to investigate has been triggered, which may happen if the information provided is clearly unsuitable as a basis for a decision. Case law describes this as a situation where it must appear highly unlikely that the Tax Agency, during a normal review, would accept the information without further investigation. In practice, it is often difficult to determine the level of detail required for this special duty to investigate to be considered triggered.
The question of what should be regarded as highly unlikely in this context was recently examined by the Supreme Administrative Court in two judgments issued in October 2025. The cases concerned, respectively, a double deduction for the same group contribution and a write-down of financial fixed assets that had not been added back to taxable income, even though it should have been. In short, in both cases the Court concluded that there was no basis for imposing a tax surcharge, even though the reasoning acknowledges that there were circumstances weighing against the Tax Agency’s duty to investigate being triggered.
What the two cases share is that the Court found arguments both for and against the special duty to investigate being triggered. Nonetheless, it held that there were no grounds for imposing a surcharge.
In our view, the Court’s conclusions in these cases should strengthen the prospects of succeeding with a request for reassessment of tax surcharges in similar situations going forward. In certain circumstances, the Court’s rulings may also be invoked to support a request for reassessment of surcharge decisions made further back in time.
If you have any questions about tax surcharges or are thinking about asking for a reassessment, feel free to get in touch. We can help you review your surcharge decision and assess the prospects for reassessment or appeal. Read more about our tax advisory services here.