Invoice without your own company: how it works in 2026

You've secured an assignment, the client wants an invoice – but you don't have a company. You don't need one either. Through umbrella employment, you become an employee of a company that invoices the client on your behalf and pays out the remainder as salary.

What does it mean to invoice without your own company?

According to Swedish regulations, you cannot send an invoice with VAT and F-tax as a private individual. What you can do is let someone else invoice in their name and employ you for the assignment. This is exactly what an umbrella employment company does:

1. You agree on the price and terms with the client.
2. You register the assignment with the umbrella employment company.
3. Through the umbrella employment company, you create and send the invoice to your client, using the umbrella employment company's F-tax and organisation number.
4. Once the invoice is paid, the money is paid out to you as salary, after fees and tax.

So, you are employed – per assignment, not per month. This means the employer deducts preliminary tax, pays employer contributions, and reports your income to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) in the employer declaration. You don't do any bookkeeping and don't submit a VAT declaration.

What does it cost – and what's left as salary?

Three things differentiate the invoice amount from what lands in your account:

• VAT. Added to the invoice and passed on to the state. It does not affect your salary.
• Employer contributions. Paid on top of the gross salary and are the single largest item. They finance, among other things, your pension, income qualifying for sickness benefits, and parental allowance.
• Preliminary tax. Deducted from your gross salary, just like with any employment. By practice, 30 percent unless you have chosen to adjust this manually.

In addition, the umbrella employment company charges a fee, usually a percentage of the invoiced amount excluding VAT.

A rule of thumb many use is that approximately half of the invoiced amount excluding VAT remains as net salary. Exactly how much depends on your municipal tax, your preliminary tax adjustment decision, and whether you are entitled to deductions for, for example, travel or materials for the assignment.

When is umbrella employment suitable – and when is it not?

Umbrella employment is suitable when:

• You invoice irregularly or alongside another employment.
• You want to test working independently without committing to a company.
• Assignments are shorter, and you want to avoid administration, reminders, and debt collection.
• You want to maintain the security aspects of employment: tax deducted automatically, pension-qualifying income, and insurance during the assignment.

It is less suitable when:

• You invoice large amounts every month. In such cases, your own company might result in lower total costs, even with an accounting firm included.
• You have large deductible costs in your business, such as equipment or inventory.
• You need your own organisation number to participate in procurements or sign certain contracts.

Freelance, umbrella employee or own company?

The words are often confused. Freelance describes how you work – independently, with multiple clients. Umbrella employee and sole trader describe how you get paid and are taxed. So you can freelance as an umbrella employee, with a sole trader company, or through a limited company.