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In 2007 Sweden’s centre-right coalition introduced a tax break for household services, the so-called RUT deduction (a Swedish acronym for cleaning, maintenance and washing). ROT is short for renovation, refurbishment and extension and was introduced in 2008. RUT and ROT are jointly known as the household deduction. 

The tax deduction has been 50 percent for services, capped at 50,000 Swedish kronor (€5,350) per taxpayer per year. The number of people making use of the tax break has increased year on year, and in 2014 the Swedish Tax Agency registered 4.5 million purchases with household deductions.  

The centre-left government now wants to halve the ceiling for RUT services and introduce some limits on the types of services covered. The 50,000 kronor ceiling for ROT services will remain, but the tax deduction rate will be cut from 50 to 30 percent. The changes are expected to lead to an added tax revenue of 5.78 billion kronor (€62bn).