Tools / Danish investment tax
Fund vs ETF Tax Calculator
How an ETF, an accumulating fund, a distributing fund and a fund with technical dividend end up after Danish tax, brokerage and currency costs, if you hold for up to 30 years and sell everything at the end.
Shared assumptions
Total return of the underlying market, before fund costs.
Part of the return paid out each year. Danish funds also pay out realised gains, so this is often higher than the market's own dividend yield.
Pick a provider and fund to fill in its average dividend.
Storebrand Indeks Alle Markeder A5, 2026: DKK 32.70 per unit, 1.5% of the end-2025 price.
Applied to dividends kept as cash and to tax you pay from outside money.
Equal outside money
Each year the scenario that pays less tax than the other invests the saving, as a new purchase with brokerage. That is usually the fund, but it is the ETF in years where the fund pays more. The invested money counts as outside money in the result.
Progression threshold 2026: DKK 79,400 (single), DKK 158,800 (married). Below it 27%, above it 42%. Aktiesparekonto is always 17%.
Net value if sold in year N
After brokerage, currency fees and all tax, including tax at sale. Outside money spent on tax is subtracted with interest.
Tax paid while holding
Tax actually paid year by year. Mark-to-market (ETF, aktiesparekonto): all of it. Distributing and technical-dividend funds: only the tax on the dividend. Tax at sale is not included.
Year by year
How the calculation works
- ETF (accumulating): taxed every year on the change in value (lagerbeskatning). Assumes the ETF is on SKAT's list of approved ETFs, so it counts as share income. Losses are carried forward.
- Accumulating fund: an equity-based Danish fund. Taxed only when you sell, on the gain over the purchase price.
- Distributing fund: the dividend is taxed when paid. If reinvested, the amount after tax buys new units and you pay brokerage on that purchase. The reinvested amount is added to your purchase price, so it is not taxed again at sale.
- Technical dividend (for example Storebrand). Storebrand Indeks Alle Markeder's 2026 technical dividend was DKK 32.70 per unit for class A5 and DKK 7.85–19.70 for classes B5–D5, which is 0.6–1.5% of the end-2025 price. Only A5 (1.5%) is sold to Danish retail investors. More active funds are higher: Global Multifactor about 4.6%, Global Solutions about 6.0%. the dividend stays in the fund with no brokerage, but you are taxed on it every year. That tax is either paid from outside money or by selling units. The taxed dividend is added to your purchase price.
- Aktiesparekonto: everything is taxed yearly at 17% on the change in account value, whatever the product. Dividends are not taxed separately. The 2026 deposit cap is DKK 174,200.
- Selling units to pay tax costs brokerage and currency fees. For a technical-dividend fund on a free account, that sale also realises part of the gain, which is taxed too.
- Invest the yearly tax difference: each year the free-account scenario paying the most tax sets the level, and every other free-account scenario invests what it saved, as a new purchase with brokerage. Usually the fund invests, but in years where the fund pays more tax (a large dividend, or a loss year for the ETF) the ETF invests instead. Tax plus invested difference is then equal across scenarios every year. With three scenarios the highest tax sets the level, so with two funds and one ETF, one fund can invest the difference to the other fund in a year where that fund pays the most. Fund dividends are capped at 10% in the inputs; higher payouts are not realistic for this comparison. It does not apply on an aktiesparekonto, where everything is taxed yearly anyway and deposits are capped. The invested money is subtracted from the result with the cash return added, like tax paid from outside, and it adds to the purchase price.
- Paying tax from outside money keeps the investment intact, but the money is not free: it is subtracted from the result with the cash return added.
- Brokerage is the higher of the minimum fee and the percentage. Currency fees apply on purchase, on sale, and on dividends.
- Brokerage and currency fees on the first purchase are part of the purchase price, so they reduce the taxable gain.
- The tax rate slider is applied flat. In reality a large gain realised in one year is taxed at 42% above the threshold. The result cards show how much of the gain at sale lies above it.
- Returns are constant every year, and taxes are settled at year end.