Non-profit organisations play a very important role in the Swedish civil society, both economically and for the employment policy. The organisations pursue various activities such as, activities aiming at social needs, sport activities and activities contributing to the political life. Depending on what activities the organisations practice different tax rules follow.

A person who pursues commercial activity constitutes a taxable person within the meaning of the Swedish VAT act. The definition of commercial activity is an activity which is practiced independently, professionally and with an object of making a profit. The activity must be practiced regularly and to a certain extent to qualify as commercial. When deciding if the activity which a non-profit organisation practices is commercial or not, the EU-law must be taken into consideration. The equivalent term to commercial activity within the EU-law is economic activity. The two terms are not completely corresponding which make the evaluation of commercial activity problematic.

Non-profit organisations can be exempted from VAT liability if certain criteria are met. The organisation must have a non-profit purpose which is in the public interest to protect, the activities pursued must fulfil the non-profit purpose to a broad extent, and the income must be used to carry out the non-profit purpose and finally the organisation need to have an open member admission.

Due to differences between the Swedish national law and the EU-law, a report has been developed with recommended changes to achieve full correspondence between the rules. The VAT liability for non-profit organisations in the future is therefore uncertain.