Guides

#Three parts, three different responsibilities

Pension is made up of three parts. The state pension comes from the government and is built up based on your pensionable income. Occupational pension comes from an employer, usually through a collective agreement. Private savings are what you set aside yourself. For an employee, the first two are handled automatically. As a freelancer, it's important to know which of these parts is actually being filled.

The short version: as a light entrepreneur, you earn state pension on your paid-out salary, while occupational pension is the part that's at risk of being missing. That's why pension is one of the things you should consider before you even set your price.

#State pension: built on your salary

When you invoice through a light-entrepreneur company, your payment is paid out as salary, and on that salary the employer pays statutory employer contributions totaling 31.42 percent. One of the contributions in that package is the old-age pension contribution, which is what gives you state pension. In other words, every krona paid out as salary counts toward your pensionable income.

That leads to an important practical conclusion. Money that never becomes salary doesn't generate pension either. Expense reimbursements and deductions for outlays are not pensionable, since they aren't compensation for work. Taking out as much as possible as something other than salary might feel good that month, but it costs you in pension.

The state pension is also only calculated up to an income ceiling. If you earn more than the ceiling, the excess doesn't generate any additional state pension, which makes occupational pension and private savings more important at higher incomes. The current ceiling and how your pension is calculated are described by the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten).

#Occupational pension: the part that's often missing

Occupational pension is not a statutory right — it's based on a collective agreement or an individual agreement between employer and employee. Many light entrepreneurs therefore lack occupational pension, even though they're formally employed by the light-entrepreneur company. Always ask your light-entrepreneur company directly whether occupational pension is included, and ask for the answer in writing.

If you're coming from a permanent job with a collective agreement, this is the biggest difference you need to handle. An employee often gets an occupational pension contribution as a share of their salary without noticing it. As a freelancer, you need to factor the equivalent amount into your price and then save it yourself — otherwise your total pension will drop even if your salary stays the same.

#Private savings: how to think about it

Without occupational pension, private savings become your occupational pension. Decide on a share of each paid-out salary that goes toward pension, and treat it as a cost, not as surplus. A fixed share deducted directly at every salary payout is easier to stick to than an amount you try to save at the end of the year.

Also consider the order of priorities. First build a buffer that covers a few months of expenses, since freelance income varies, and then put the rest toward long-term pension savings. Tax rules for deductible pension savings differ depending on whether you have occupational pension or not, and they don't apply to everyone, so check what applies to you at skatteverket.se before choosing a savings option.

#Check what you actually have

Don't guess. Log in to the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) to see your accrued state pension, and use minpension.se to see the full picture, including any occupational pensions from previous jobs. Do this once a year, ideally at the same time you review your prices.

Pay particular attention to years with low pensionable income. Periods with little salary show up directly in your state pension, and it's easier to compensate in time than afterward. If you have questions about your own forecast, the Swedish Pensions Agency is the right source, not a discussion forum.

#Salary, not guesswork, with Truster

With Truster you invoice without a company of your own and receive your payment as salary, with tax and employer contributions handled — giving you pensionable income and clear pay slips to check against. The platform is built by a payment institution authorized by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority and is used by more than 55,000 people across the Nordics. Truster is opening in Sweden by invitation: join the waitlist.