How the Swedish pension system works
Sweden’s general pension (allmän pension) is based on your pensionable income (PGI): salary minus the 7% general pension contribution, up to SEK 625,500 a year (7.5 income base amounts). Of this, 16% is credited to a notional inkomstpension account and 2.5% to the funded premiepension; at withdrawal the balance is divided by a life-expectancy divisor (delningstal), which is estimated for cohorts born after 1960. If your rights are low, the garantipension tops them up to at most SEK 11,988 a month for a single person (SEK 10,853 if married), in full after 40 years’ residence. The target age (riktålder) is 67 for those born 1960–1965 and only a forecast after that (68, later 69). The pension can start three years earlier, at 64 at the earliest for those born from 1963, the garantipension only at riktålder.
Most employees also earn an occupational pension (tjänstepension) through a collective agreement. If you enter nothing, the calculator assumes ITP 1 for salaried staff: 4.5% of salary up to SEK 52,125 a month and 30% above that, up to SEK 208,500, paid from age 25 to 66. SAF-LO for blue-collar workers uses the same rates from 22 to 65, and for the public sector or your own plan you can enter a rate. A new agreement from 2028 is not yet signed and is not included. For exact figures, enter the balances from your orange envelope (orange kuvert) and the forecasts or balances from minpension.se; your years in Sweden count for the garantipension.
Since 2016 employees can no longer deduct private pension saving, so the calculator closes the gap with an investment savings account (investeringssparkonto, ISK). Instead of tax on gains, an ISK pays a flat yearly tax of about 1.065% of the capital in 2026 (a standard yield of 3.55% taxed at 30%), and the first SEK 300,000 across ISK, endowment insurance and PEPP are tax-free. The calculator adds the general, occupational and private pensions, compares the total with your target share of your last salary and shows the monthly saving needed; as an ISK has no deposit limit, it can take the whole amount.
Pensions are taxed as earned income, mainly through municipal tax and, on high incomes, state income tax, without the general pension contribution; from the target retirement age (riktålder) a higher basic allowance lowers the tax.