Danish pensions if you move abroad

You can take both your company and personal pensions abroad with you.

You can transfer the pensions to a foreign pension scheme if an approved scheme has been set up in another EU/EEA country. The Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) approves the foreign scheme.

If there is a double taxation agreement

If you live abroad and start receiving payments from an annuity pension or pension scheme providing a regular income, whether it is a personal or company scheme, the double taxation agreement between Denmark and the relevant country will determine to which country you must pay tax.

The general rule is that you must pay tax on the payments under annuity pension schemes and pension schemes providing a regular income in your country of residence.

You may, therefore, be tax exempt in Denmark under the double taxation agreement with the country you live in. If you are exempt from taxation of your pension, you must report the portion of your pension that is tax free to us annually. You do this by entering the amount in box 28 on your tax return every year. At the same time, you declare that you still satisfy the conditions and are entitled to the tax exemption.

Log on to E-tax and enter ’skattefritaget’ (tax-exempt pension) on your tax return, box 28

However, Denmark seeks to ensure that the country that has granted tax relief on the contributions to the pension schemes is also the country that has the right to tax the pension payments. Under the double taxation agreement, Denmark may therefore have the right to tax the payments from your pension scheme even though you live abroad.

If there is no double taxation agreement

If there is no double taxation agreement between Denmark and the relevant country, Denmark taxes the payments.

If you terminate a capital pension, old-age insurance scheme, old-age savings scheme or supplementary lump sum pension, you must pay a charge in Denmark on the full amount paid for which you were granted relief/exemption.

See the list of countries that have entered into a double taxation agreement with  Denmark:

Danish double taxation agreements and international agreements (only in Danish)

You may be liable to pay supplementary tax on contributions if you move abroad and have had more than 20% of your pay paid into a company pension scheme providing a regular income or an annuity pension scheme during the 5 years (10 years for principal shareholders) immediately prior to moving abroad.

If you lived in Spain or France before 28 November 2007, you will in most cases still be covered by the terminated double taxation agreement.