From now on, in 2022, the Swedish tax authorities will be able to charge income tax to retirees who receive a pension paid by Sweden and who reside in Portugal.

In a notice published in Diário da República on February 1, 2022, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that Sweden communicated on 16 June, 2021 that it denounced the bilateral convention aimed at “avoiding double taxation and preventing tax evasion in the field of income taxes”, signed in Helsinborg on 29 August 2002.

The Swedish parliament voted in favour of the denunciation of the tax treaty it had with Portugal last year. The tax agreement ended on 31 December, 2021, which means that from 1 January, 2022, Sweden can levy tax on pensions paid by Sweden to residents of Portugal.

The proposal was sent by the Swedish Government to the country's parliament, with the aim of denouncing the convention to avoid double taxation with Portugal, and the Portuguese Government was informed of this step. At the origin of this Swedish Government bill is the fact that until now, Portugal has not ratified the protocol of the double taxation agreement signed by the two countries in May 2019.

“We waited a long time. We made an agreement in 2019. We waited two years and our patience has ended”, explained Magdalena Andersson, then Minister of Finance, in an interview with Público newspaper.