ISK, endowment insurance & securities account

ISK, endowment insurance or a regular account?

In an investment savings account (ISK) and an endowment insurance you pay no capital gains tax. Instead the capital is taxed on a flat basis every year. For 2026 the imputed income is 3.55 percent of the capital base – the government borrowing rate of 2.55 percent plus one percentage point – taxed at 30 percent. That gives an effective tax of 1.065 percent of the capital per year.

From 2026 savings up to 300,000 kronor are tax-free in an ISK and an endowment insurance. The threshold was raised from 150,000 kronor and applies jointly to all your accounts of both kinds. With 500,000 kronor you therefore pay the flat tax on only 200,000 kronor.

In a regular securities account you instead pay 30 percent tax on the gain when you sell, and you may offset losses against gains. Fund holdings in such an account are additionally taxed on an imputed income of 0.4 percent of the value at the start of the year. Flat taxation therefore pays off when returns are good, while the regular account can be better at low or negative returns – there you pay no tax at all if you make a loss.

ISK and endowment insurance are taxed alike but differ otherwise: in an endowment insurance the insurance company formally owns the holding, you can name beneficiaries and the company handles the offsetting of foreign withholding tax. An endowment insurance can also be owned by a limited company and hold unlisted shares, which an ISK cannot. The calculation above assumes the flat tax is paid from the account and that the entire holding is sold at the end of the period.

Source: the Swedish Tax Agency, imputed income for ISK/endowment insurance 3.55% and tax-free base level 300,000 kr (2026), government borrowing rate 2.55%. Guidance only, not investment advice.