Inherited goods

Personal property inherited from a deceased person can be brought into Sweden without paying customs duties or taxes under certain conditions. You can read about the special rules that apply here.

Firstly, you need to have your normal residence in Sweden or another EU country.

Under the same conditions, the same exemption from customs duty also applies where the personal property is acquired by inheritance by legal persons engaged in non-profit-making activities and established in Sweden or another EU country.

What is personal property?

Personal property is property for personal or household use that is the deceased person's estate, such as personal possessions, furniture, household goods, linen, bicycles, motorcycles, private vehicles and their trailers, caravans, pleasure boats and private aeroplanes. Personal property also includes pets and riding animals, as well as certain portable tools, equipment and instruments used by a deceased person in his or her artistic activity.

Take your inheritance home within two years of inheriting it

You must repatriate the inherited property within two years of the date on which the personal property was transferred to you (final settlement of the succession). If there are special reasons, you can apply for an extension.

The goods may be imported in several separate consignments within the two-year period.

Exception

Duty and tax exemption does not apply to:

alcoholic products
tobacco and tobacco products
commercial means of transport
equipment used by the deceased in his or her business or professional activities
stocks of raw materials and finished or semi-finished products
livestock (e.g. cattle, sheep, goats) and stocks of agricultural products in excess of what is reasonable for normal family needs.

You are also not eligible for duty and tax relief for property you have received as an advance inheritance.

How to apply for duty-free treatment

You apply for duty-free treatment in one of the following ways

To lodge a declaration, go to a customs office and get help to register your details in our import system. To speed up the process, there is a form you can fill in in advance and take to the customs office (see below).
Contact a customs representative to apply for duty relief on the import declaration.

Manage your import declaration yourself

If you choose to handle your customs declaration yourself, you can provide the information on a simplified form and lodge it at a customs office where you will be assisted by a customs officer to enter the declaration into our import system.

You can find our locations and addresses on the page Customs clearance offices.

Forms

Download the Import manual customs declaration form. If you have several different types of goods, you may also need an additional sheet to the form.

Help with filling in the form

Use our guide to know what to write in the different fields of the form.

Guide for manual customs declaration import (in Swedish)

Applicable codes

To apply for duty relief, enter these codes in the Goods item 1 section:

Commodity code: 9919 00 00 20
Please note that goods subject to prohibitions or restrictions should be declared on their respective commodity codes in chapters 1-97.
See which goods are subject to import restrictions.
Further procedure:
- C04 (natural person) or C44 (legal person)
- F45
Preferential treatment: 100
Nature of the transaction: 3
Supporting documents: enter the code 403Q for the documents you attach to the import declaration. See the section on supporting documents below.

VAT exemption

If you are declaring under the new legislation, you must enter the code F45 in data element 11 10 000 000 - Additional procedure to apply for VAT exemption. For those who are registered for VAT, the question of VAT exemption is examined by the Swedish Tax Agency.

Keep in mind that you must apply for duty relief in order to benefit from VAT exemption even if you are registered for VAT. A condition for VAT exemption is that you have been granted duty relief by Swedish Customs. This applies even if the goods are duty-free according to TARIC.

Attaching supporting documents to the import declaration

When submitting the import declaration, you also need to attach a copy of the will, estate inventory, deed of inheritance or other similar document proving that you can benefit from duty-free treatment. Code 403Q.

Applicable rules

Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, Articles 17-20.
Swedish Customs' regulations and general advice (TFS 2012:3) on customs exemption etc., Chapter 2, Section 10.
Act (1994:1551) on exemption from tax on imports, etc., Chapter 2, Section 2.