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DENMARK IN 2024

KEY POINTS: What changes about life in Denmark in 2024?

From property tax rules and rail fares to work permit case processing and an abolished public holiday, here's what changes in Denmark in the year ahead.

Published: 1 December 2023 13:51 CET
Updated: 7 January 2024 08:27 CET

KEY POINTS: What changes about life in Denmark in 2024?

What changes can be expected in Denmark next year? File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

As the calendar turns to 2024, Denmark is preparing for several changes that will impact various aspects of daily life for its residents.

From modifications in property tax rules to adjustments in cash payment limits, the 2024 budget, and more, these shifts promise to bring a mix of challenges and opportunities for residents and newcomers alike.

Changes to Danish property tax rules

From January 1st, 2024, Denmark will implement new property tax regulations that will have significant implications for homeowners in the country.

These changes are expected to result in lower property tax rates for four out of every five homeowners.

For those who may face higher tax rates, subsidies will be provided to ensure that the new rules do not lead to increased financial burdens.

However, prospective homeowners may encounter a different property tax landscape compared to those who purchased their homes before 2024.

The objective of these new rules is to maintain property tax stability as they shift from older data to valuations based on property assessments made in 2022.

If you want to go into the specifics of these changes, The Local has a detailed guide on accessing the new assessments.

Copenhagen cycle

The expected outcome of the changes in property taxes is a reduction in property tax rates for around 80 percent of homeowners in Denmark, according to some estimates. Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash

A new limit for cash payments

In March 2024, Denmark may introduce new rules governing the use of cash. The current cash payment limit, set in 2021, stands at 20,000 kroner.

The Danish government plans to propose a bill to reduce this limit to 15,000 kroner.

Currently, cash is used in about 10 percent of in-store transactions in Denmark, with 90 percent of these payments amounting to 500 kroner or less.

The 2024 budget – and its implications

The 2024 state budget brings a mix of changes that will affect the daily lives of Denmark’s residents, including international citizens living in the country.

A special fund will be established to make repairing household appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators more affordable, aiming to promote a circular economy and sustainability. This is likely to involve a pool to which business can apply for funding related to circular economy businesses like repair shops. Tax deductions, training in repairs and help accessing spare parts are also potential elements.

Furthermore, more homes will be connected to district heating, enhancing energy supply security. Electric car owners can expect the tax deduction for zero-emission cars to remain unchanged from 2023 to 2025, providing savings when paying car registration tax.

Additionally, there will be increased tax subsidies for commuters in rural areas and lower ferry ticket costs for smaller outlying islands through subsidies to operators.

Train station Denmark

Beginning in 2024, Denmark will witness a rise in rail ticket costs. Photo by Marek Lumi on Unsplash

Rail fares set to increase

Starting in 2024, rail ticket prices in Denmark will increase by up to 13 percent, with most regions experiencing higher fares.

The extent of these changes varies by region and ticket type, averaging around 10 percent.

These price adjustments apply to various aspects of rail travel, such as prepaid Rejsekort usage and Pendlerkort for commuters.

The “price regulation” which will take effect next year comes after a “backlog of costs from 2022 and 2023”, national rail operator DSB said when it announced the changes.

Slight change to work permit case processing

Work permit applications, including those under programs like the Pay Limit Scheme, the Fast Track Scheme, and the Positive List, are subject to new income statistics from the beginning of next year.

These statistics, provided by the Confederation of Danish Employers, will be updated quarterly, with the next update effective from January 1st, 2024.

This means that applications submitted from October 1st onwards will be assessed based on income statistics from the second quarter of 2023, while earlier applications will rely on statistics from the first quarter of 2023.

Remember to check your Danish preliminary tax return in January

Preliminary tax returns or forskudsopgørelser for the forthcoming year are released in November, meaning they can carry information over from the preceding tax year, using information from the most recent tax return. Tax years in Denmark follow calendar years.

If your circumstances have changed during 2023, it’s therefore a good idea to update your preliminary tax returns as early in the year as possible, because it ensures accurate tax payments from the beginning of the new year.

The Danish tax authority, Skat, advises updating your preliminary return — a projection of your expected income for the year along with the deductions you’re eligible for — if your circumstances have changed in one or more of the following ways:

Changed jobs
Been promoted or received a salary increase
Taken on a mortgage
Refinanced your mortgage
Changed your commute

“It’s never too late to go in and check your preliminary tax return. You can do that every day, all year round. It’s just important to do it now in relation to the paycheck for January,” Danish Tax Authority junior director Jan Møller Mikkelsen told news wire Ritzau a year ago.

“We experience increasing numbers of calls from the public in January when people can’t understand why the first payment of the year is wrong,” Mikkelsen said.

“Now is the time to go in and check the preliminary tax return if you want to ensure the correct wages are paid in January,” he said.

The now-scrapped Great Prayer Day holiday

After heated parliamentary and public debate in 2023, the government pushed through with its decision to abolish the Great Prayer Day from 2024 onwards.

That means that this centuries-old holiday, observed in Denmark for over three hundred years, will no longer provide a public day off starting in 2024. The last Great Prayer Day holiday occurred on May 5th, 2023.

Great Prayer Day traditions like confirmations and baking hveder, cardemom-infused buns, are likely to still be practiced as part of this springtime tradition, but most people will now have to fit them around work.

Plastic Rejsekort to be gradually phased out and replaced by app

In an exciting development for commuters and travellers navigating Denmark’s extensive public transportation system, the era of the plastic Rejsekort is drawing to a close.

Instead, a new mobile app is set to change how passengers pay for their journeys.

Starting in 2024, passengers utilizing Danish buses, trains, and metros will have the option to bid farewell to their physical Rejsekort and welcome a digital counterpart.

The 2024 rollout of the mobile app will initially provide passengers with the choice between the digital version and the traditional physical card, but the gradual phasing out of the physical Rejsekort is also on the horizon.

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KEY POINTS: What changes about life in Denmark in July 2024?

Summer holidays begin!

Most schools in Denmark break up for the summer on June 28th, making July 1st the first day of the summer holidays.

Of the five standard weeks or (normally 25 days) of paid vacation covered by the Holiday Act, the “main holiday period” begins on May 1st and ends on September 30th. During this time, three weeks’ consecutive vacation may be taken out of the five weeks.

For those in full or part-time employment who are covered by the Danish Holiday Act (Ferieloven), most will take three weeks off in July, starting on July 1st, July 8th, or July 15th.

Many taking three weeks off in a row, sometimes coinciding with the school holidays (although others break it up).

This is why you may hear Danish colleagues who work full time wishing each other a “good summer holiday” on June 28th as if it’s the end of the school term.

New law making spousal reunion easier

From July 1st, those bringing a foreign spouse to Denmark will have the amount they need to deposit in a bank account accessible by their local municipality halved from 114,000 kroner to 57,000 kroner (both 2024 level), as part of a package of measures on family reunification.

The new lower requirement will require for all residency permit decisions made for foreign spouses after July 1st, and will apply at the time of decision rather than the time of application.

The new law will also change the Danish language requirement for the partner with an existing right to live in Denmark (normally because they are Danish citizens), so that the requirement will be “considered fulfilled” if the resident has spent five years or more in full-time employment or been self-employed in a job that has “significantly involved communication in Danish”.

Finally, the bill will bring in a new opholdsordning or “residence scheme” which will allow returning Danes to bring their families with them based on the same rules which are currently applied to foreign nationals granted work permits in Denmark.

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integration, SIRI) told The Local that in May that it intended to launch a new application page and application form for returning Danes, with details published on the nyidanmark.dk website at the end of June.

New law on recording working hours

From July 1st, all Danish employers are required to introduce a working hours registration system that makes it possible to measure the daily working hours of each individual employee.

The requirement implements a 2019 judgement of the EU Court, with Denmark’s version built on an agreement reached on June 30th last year between the Confederation of Danish Employers, the Danish Trade Union Confederation, and Denmark’s white collar union, the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations.

Under the new law, workers will only need to register deviations from agreed or scheduled working hours, but will have to open the app or web page if they, say, pop out to the dentist or stay late to finish a presentation.

Under the law, employers are required to keep these records for five years.

Employees empowered to set their own schedule — so called self-organisers — are exempt from the law, but as the law states that such people should be able to reorganise their own working time “in its entirety” and that this power should be enshrined in their contracts. This is only expected to apply to the most senior tier of executives.

End to compulsory bank account work permit rule

Foreign workers who receive a work permit under the “researcher” scheme and four so-called “fast track” schemes will no longer be obliged to open and receive payment in a Danish bank account, ending one of the most irrititating bureaucratic hurdles for foreigners coming to work in Denmark.

The exemption will apply to those granted work permits under the “researcher” scheme and also to the “pay limit”, “education”, “researcher” and “short-term” tracks of the fast-track scheme.

To be eligible for a fast-track permit, foreigners need to hired by a so-called “certified” company, typically a mid-sized and large company that hires internationally quite regularly.

For employees still covered by the bank account requirement, the government has meanwhile extended the time limit for setting up a Danish bank account from 90 days to 180 days.

Update to Positive List

The Positive List is a list of professions for which immigration authorities can issue work permits because Denmark is experiencing a shortage of qualified professionals in those fields.

People who are offered a job included in the Positive List can apply for a Danish residence and work permit based on the Positive List Scheme. An educational background in the relevant field is required.

The Positive List Scheme is one of a number of business schemes used to grant work permits for non-EU and EEA nationals who are unable to move to Denmark under the EU’s right to free movement.

The list is updated twice a year, on January 1st and July 1st.

The updated lists can be viewed on the website of the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

Tax declaration deadlines for businesses and self-employed people

If you are a business owner in Denmark you must register your results for 2023 by June 30th, with self-employed people having until July 1st. Find more details on the Tax Agency’s website here.

Custody hearing for Pole who assaulted Danish PM

The custody of the 39-year-old Polish man suspected of punching Frederiksen on June 7th as she walked in central Copenhagen runs out on July 4th, meaning it needs to be extended in a new court hearing.

The man, who was arrested immediately after the incident, has denied responsibility and says he has no recollection of what happened.

New Copenhagen Metro lines open

Officially opened by King Frederik X on June 22nd, five new stations have extended Copenhagen’s M4 Metro line and can now be used by passengers.

The new stations — Havneholmen, Enghave Brygge, Sluseholmen, Mozarts Plads and Copenhagen South — link Copenhagen Central Station to southern suburb Valby.

The new line will allow people to travel from Copenhagen South in Valby to the Rådhuspladsen in central Copenhagen in anout 10 minutes and to get from Copenhagen South to Frederiksberg at the other end of the M4 line in about 17 minutes.

The total metro network now consists of 44 stations spread over 43 kilometres of track.

Vig Festival

The Vig music festival will be held between July 10th and July 13th in the northwestern part of Zealand, with Infernal, Gobs, Zar Paulo, Mads Christian, ISSE, Gabriel Jacobsen, and Rasmus Seebach all on the bill.

Tickets: A one-day ticket costs between 925 kroner and 1,025 kroner depending on the day you attend. Children up to the age of 11 can enter for free, as long as they are accompanied by a paying adult.

A full festival three-day ticket costs between 1,375 kroner and 1,825 kroner, depending how early/late you buy. A full festival family ticket for one adult (18+) plus a child aged 12-15, costs 2,125 kroner.

Copenhagen Jazz Festival (and Aarhus and Aero)

The streets of Copenhagen will hum with the groovy sound of summer jazz as the latest edition of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival begins on July 5th and continues for ten days until July 15th.

The annual festival is unique in that it does not have a specific location, but is played out in parks, on squares and in bars (and, of course, jazz clubs) across the capital. The size of the venues ranges equally from intimate and spontaneous to major concert halls.

Over 1,200 concerts are scheduled to take place across 120 venues and you can check out the programme on the event’s website.

For those of you who really cannot get enough jazz, there’s also the International Jazz Festival in Aarhus from July 13th to july 20th and the Ærø Jazz Festival on one of the idyllic islands south of Funen from July 31st to August 3rd.

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