Denmark — §33A 42-Day Rule for Foreign Workers

Summary

What it protects

Exemption relief on foreign wage income (not a residency test)

Eligibility gate

A foreign stay of at least 6 continuous months

The cap

At most 42 days in the realm in any rolling 6-month period

Window

Any completed 6 months (modelled as a rolling 180 days)

Day counting

Broken days count as full days

Effect of breach

Relief lapses for the whole stay

Basis

Ligningsloven § 33 A, stk. 1

If you are a Danish tax resident who takes a job abroad, Ligningsloven § 33 A can exempt the wage you earn out there from Danish tax. This is a relief you preserve, not a residency status you gain or lose. Two conditions carry the relief: your stay abroad must last at least six continuous months, and across that stay your time back in the realm — Denmark, the Faroe Islands, or Greenland — must stay at no more than 42 days in any completed six-month period. Cross 42 days in a rolling six months and the relief lapses for the entire stay. Stay at or under 42 and the exemption holds.

Who it applies to

§33A is for people who remain fully tax resident in Denmark but earn their wages while working outside the realm. You are the target audience if you are:

• A Danish resident on an overseas posting, secondment, or long-term foreign contract who keeps a home or family in Denmark.
• Working abroad for six months or more but flying back to Denmark for meetings, holidays, or family time.
• Airline crew or a mobile professional whose foreign work is punctuated by regular days in the realm.

It does not apply to people who have given up Danish tax residency — once you are non-resident there is no Danish tax on the foreign wage to relieve in the first place. §33A is precisely the tool for the person who stays Danish on paper while living the job elsewhere.

The rule — and why it exists

Under Ligningsloven § 33 A, stk. 1, a Danish tax resident who works abroad during a stay of at least six months gets exemption relief on the foreign wage income. The stay may be interrupted, but only in limited ways and only up to a hard limit:

• The six-month gate. The foreign stay must last at least six continuous months. This is a minimum-duration eligibility condition — until you clear it, there is no §33A relief. It is a gate, not a running counter.
• Permitted interruptions only. The stay may be broken by (a) necessary work in the realm in direct connection with the foreign employment, and (b) holiday, leave, or similar. Other kinds of time back home are not sheltered.
• The 42-day cap. Those interruptions may total at most 42 days within any completed six-month period. The statute says højst 42 dage — at most 42 — so 42 days is allowed and the 43rd day breaks it.

Why it exists: §33A rewards genuinely working abroad, not nominally relocating while really living in Denmark. The six-month gate proves the stay is real; the 42-day cap stops the "foreign" stay from quietly becoming a Danish one through frequent returns. Breach the cap and the relief is lost for the whole stay, not just for the excess days.

Counting the days

The 42-day cap counts every calendar day on which you are present in the realm (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, or Greenland), and it counts broken days as whole days.

1. 1Count any day with any presence in the realm as one full day — arrival and departure days included. Skattestyrelsen's own example: arrive Friday 12:00 and leave Monday 12:00 is four days, not three.
2. 2Include necessary Danish work days in the 42. They do not break the stay, but they still consume the cap — and the pay for work physically done in Denmark is not relieved.
3. 3Slide the window across any completed six-month period (modelled here as a rolling 180 days). This is not a calendar-year total; the count keeps moving.
4. 4Stay at or under 42 in every such window. Reaching the 43rd day in any rolling six months breaks the relief for the entire foreign stay.

One narrow relief in the counting: under Supreme Court case SKM2003.405.HR, the outbound and return travel days that mark the very start and very end of the whole foreign stay are not counted. A day-counter that cannot see which days bookend the entire stay will simply count them, which errs on the safe (slightly conservative) side.

Examples

Example 1 — Mette clears the gate, then stays under the cap

Mette, a Copenhagen resident, takes a nine-month engineering contract in Singapore starting 1 February 2026. She flies home for 18 days over Easter and 20 days in the summer — 38 days in the realm across any rolling six-month window. Her stay is well past six months and no six-month window exceeds 42 days, so her §33A relief on the Singapore wage holds.

Example 2 — Anders trips the 43rd day

Anders works in Dubai from 1 March 2026 and keeps returning to Aarhus for board meetings and family weekends. Counting broken days as full days, his time in Denmark reaches 43 days inside a single completed six-month period. That one extra day pushes him over højst 42 dage, and the relief lapses for the whole stay — even the months where he was almost entirely abroad.

Example 3 — Sofia does necessary Danish work

Sofia is posted to Nairobi but flies to Copenhagen for 10 days of project work that is directly tied to the Nairobi job, plus 25 days of holiday at home — 35 days in the realm. The Danish work days do not break her stay, so she stays under 42 and keeps the relief on her Kenyan wage. But the pay for those 10 Danish work days is not relieved — that slice remains taxable in Denmark.

Exceptions & edge cases

• Necessary Danish work is allowed — but it is not free. Work in the realm that is directly connected to the foreign job does not break the stay, yet those days still count toward the 42, and the income earned for work done in Denmark stays taxable in Denmark. A blunt "never set foot in a Danish office" reading over-restricts you.
• Start and end travel days are excluded. Per SKM2003.405.HR, the outbound and return travel days bookending the entire stay do not count. This only applies to the very ends of the whole stay, not to every trip home.
• The window is six months, not a calendar year. The cap is tested over any completed six-month period. A calendar-year tally can look fine while a rolling six-month window is already over 42.
• Meeting the 42 days is necessary but no longer sufficient. Following a 2022 Østre Landsret ruling and a 2023 styresignal, Skattestyrelsen also requires a genuine business rationale for the work being performed abroad. This qualitative anti-abuse condition (aimed at airline-crew and arranged-abroad setups) is a facts test the day count cannot capture.

Where professional advice genuinely earns its keep here is the qualitative side: whether your arrangement shows a real business rationale, how to apportion pay for Danish work days, and whether a full or half exemption applies. The day count itself is mechanical — a six-month gate and a 42-in-any-6-months cap — and that is what an app can track for you.

Common misconceptions

• "§33A decides whether I am a Danish tax resident." No — it assumes you still are and relieves your foreign wage. Breaking it costs you the relief, not your residency.
• "I can't do any work in Denmark during the stay." False. Necessary work tied to the foreign job is allowed and does not break the stay — it just counts toward the 42 and its pay is not relieved.
• "Arrival and departure days are half-days." No — broken days are whole days. Friday noon to Monday noon is four days in the realm.
• "42 is a yearly allowance." No — it is a cap on any completed six-month period, and it rolls. The 43rd day in any such window breaks the relief for the whole stay.
• "Staying under 42 days guarantees the relief." Not since 2022–2023. The day count is necessary, but a genuine business rationale for the foreign work is now required on top of it.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Skattestyrelsen — Den juridiske vejledning C.F.4.2.2.4 (42-dages-reglen)
• Skattestyrelsen — Den juridiske vejledning C.F.4.2.1 (relief under LL § 33 A, stk. 1)
• Retsinformation — Ligningsloven (LBK nr 1041 af 2014, § 33 A)