RUT tax relief is the single biggest reason professional removals and cleaning cost less than people first assume. Even so, many households either never use it or are caught out by what it actually covers.
Here is how it works in 2026, which of our services qualify, where the limits sit, and the mistakes we see most often.
What is RUT?
RUT is a Swedish tax reduction for household services. The state covers part of the labour cost when you buy certain services for your home.
You do not apply for anything yourself. We deduct the amount directly from the invoice and claim the remainder from the Swedish Tax Agency. You pay only the net sum. This is known as the invoice model, and it is how the scheme is meant to work.
How much you get back
- 50 per cent of the labour cost as a tax reduction
- A ceiling of SEK 75,000 per person per year
- That ceiling is shared with the ROT relief – see the next section
- The relief applies to labour only, not materials, equipment, travel or administration
- If there are two adults in the household, each has their own ceiling, which in practice doubles the allowance
That last point is worth pausing on. A large move with packing help and end of tenancy cleaning can be split between two people in the same household, provided both appear on the invoice and both pay their share. The ceiling then rarely becomes an issue.
The ceiling is shared with ROT
This is the detail most people miss. RUT and ROT count towards the same ceiling of SEK 75,000 per person per year, and within that total the ROT part may not exceed SEK 50,000.
So if you have renovated during the year, part of your allowance is already spent. From 1 January 2026 ROT is back at 30 per cent of the labour cost, after the temporary increase to 50 per cent that applied to payments made between 12 May and 31 December 2025. RUT stays at 50 per cent and is unchanged for 2026.
You can see how much you have left in the Tax Agency's online service. Check it before booking a large job.
Which of our services qualify?
Qualifies for RUT
- Removals and household moves between two homes
- Packing, unpacking, loading and unloading
- Dismantling and reassembling furniture that cannot be moved in one piece, and taking down and putting up lamps and pictures
- Moving belongings to and from storage when it forms part of a move between homes
- End of tenancy cleaning of the home you are leaving
- Window cleaning at the property
Does not qualify
- The storage rental itself – storage is not a household service, even though the move to and from it is
- Office moves and any cleaning for businesses – RUT is for private individuals
- Moves to countries outside the EEA – see the section on international moves below
- Materials and packaging such as boxes, tape and bubble wrap
- Vehicle costs, mileage and call out charges – travel and equipment never qualify
- Waste removal as the main service, as opposed to disposal forming a small part of a cleaning job
- Deceased estate cleaning carried out after the death – see its own section below
Storage: the storage no, the move yes
This is the most common misunderstanding, and it costs people money.
Renting storage space gives no RUT. But the work of moving your belongings into storage, and later out of storage into your new home, does qualify, as long as it forms part of a move between homes.
One condition to keep track of: the move from storage to the new home must happen within two years of you moving out of the old home. After that it no longer counts as part of the move.
So on a storage invoice from us, the move in and the move out qualify while the rental element does not. We set those items out separately.
Transport and driving time – where the line runs
Many people assume that anything to do with transport falls outside the scheme. That is not the case.
The crew's working time qualifies, including the time they spend driving your belongings between the two addresses. That is labour cost. What does not qualify is the cost of the vehicle itself: mileage, fuel, call out charges and other travel costs.
The difference shows up in the quote. A quote that separates working hours from vehicle costs is easier to calculate on, and you can see straight away how large the relief will be.
International moves within the EEA
A move abroad can qualify for RUT. The rule is about where the move goes, not about every task being carried out on Swedish soil.
If you are moving between homes within the EEA, or to Switzerland, RUT applies. The EEA covers all EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, so a move from Sundsvall to Oslo or to Berlin is within the rules.
If the move goes to a country outside the EEA – the United Kingdom, the United States or Thailand, for example – it gives no RUT.
You also need to be liable for tax in Sweden to use the relief. If you are leaving the country permanently it is worth checking with the Tax Agency in advance, because your tax position for the year affects how much you can use.
A worked example
Say an end of tenancy clean for a two room flat comes to SEK 3,200 before relief, of which SEK 3,000 is labour and SEK 200 is materials.
- Labour: SEK 3,000
- RUT relief at 50 per cent: SEK 1,500
- Materials: SEK 200
- You pay: SEK 1,700
The figures are chosen to make the arithmetic clear. Your own price comes with the quote.
The same principle applies to removals. It is why two quotes with the same headline figure can cost you different amounts: the one with a higher proportion of labour gives more relief.
Always ask how a quote is split between labour, materials and transport. A serious firm sets it out without being asked. Our from-prices on the cleaning pages – basic cleaning from SEK 595 and end of tenancy cleaning from SEK 895 – are stated after RUT, so they are what you actually pay.
Who is eligible?
- You must be a private individual, aged 18 or over at the end of the year
- You must be fully liable for tax in Sweden. If you have limited tax liability the relief can still apply where at least 90 per cent of your income is taxed here
- The work must be carried out at your home, or at a property you use, such as a holiday home or a parent's home
- You must have enough tax to offset during the year
- The firm must be approved for F-tax. We are
The second to last condition is easily overlooked. If your income for the year has been very low, the relief may be smaller than expected and the difference is invoiced afterwards.
Payment must be electronic
Since 2020, electronic payment is a requirement for work to qualify for RUT. Card, Swish, Bank-id or a bank transfer all work. Cash, cheques and gift cards do not, whatever the job itself looked like.
The work must also be both completed and paid for before the relief can be claimed. We handle that side of it, but it explains why we do not take cash payment on RUT jobs.
Common mistakes
- The invoice is in the wrong name. The relief follows whoever pays and appears on the invoice, not whoever lives there.
- The ceiling is already used up. If you have bought a lot of household services or renovated earlier in the year, the allowance may be exhausted. It is visible in the Tax Agency's online service.
- Expecting relief on the whole invoice. Only the labour cost qualifies.
- Assuming storage is entirely outside the scheme. The move to and from storage qualifies; the rental does not.
- Paying cash. That removes the relief.
- The firm lacks F-tax status. Without approved F-tax there is no relief, whatever was carried out. Always check before booking.
- Not splitting the invoice between two people in the household when both still have allowance left.
Deceased estates and RUT
The rules here are stricter than most people expect, and we would rather say so plainly in advance.
An estate can only claim the tax reduction for work carried out before the death. Cleaning, clearance and removals performed after the death give the estate no RUT at all.
Surviving children cannot use their own relief either for work carried out in a parent's home after the death. That is the Tax Agency's explicit position, and it is the point on which we most often have to correct someone who has already counted on the money.
In practice this makes clearing a deceased estate more expensive than an ordinary end of tenancy clean of the same property. We therefore do not build RUT into estate quotes unless we know it holds, so the figure you see at the start is the figure you pay. If the work began before the death, tell us and we will go through what can be reported as RUT.
How we keep it simple
There is nothing for you to fill in. We deduct RUT directly from the invoice, claim the balance from the Tax Agency, and set out clearly what is labour, materials and transport. If something does not qualify, we say so in the quote rather than letting you discover it on the invoice.
In summary
- RUT is 50 per cent of the labour cost and is unchanged for 2026
- The ceiling is SEK 75,000 per person per year and is shared with ROT, where the ROT part may not exceed SEK 50,000
- Removals, packing, end of tenancy cleaning and window cleaning qualify
- The move to and from storage qualifies, but the storage rental does not
- Vehicle costs, materials and services for businesses fall outside
- Deceased estate cleaning after the death does not qualify
- Payment must be electronic
If you are unsure how it applies in your case, ask us before booking. We will work through it with you so the quote shows what you will actually pay.
