How salary sacrifice to pension appears in payroll

Why the salary-sacrifice-to-pension benefit uses a gross (brutto) pay code and a reduced rate, and where it lands in the Flex HRM and Excel exports.

Salary sacrifice to pension lets an employee move part of their benefit allowance into their occupational pension. It behaves differently from a normal benefit on a payroll line: it is a gross salary reduction (bruttolöneavdrag), not a taxable benefit, so it uses a different pay code (löneart) and a reduced fee rate. This article explains where the benefit lands in the Flex HRM and Excel exports and why it is handled separately from other benefits.

It is a gross salary reduction, not a taxable benefit

A salary-sacrifice-to-pension contribution is not a taxable benefit (BIK), so it never produces a förmånsvärde line. Two things follow from that:

• No benefit value to tax. Because it is not BIK, the export leaves the Förmånsvärde column and its Löneart för förmånsvärde empty.
• A reduced rate applies. Using the benefit allowance to deposit to pension triggers a special social security tax (sv. särskild löneskatt) of 24.26%, rather than the 31.42% social fee that applies to a taxable benefit. The amount drawn from the employee's allowance already includes this 24.26%.

This is what the employee sees when they set up the contribution: CLVR shows a notice that paying to pension from the benefit allowance carries the 24.26% rate, with the full amount deducted from the allowance shown in the breakdown.

Where it lands in the Flex HRM export

In the Flex HRM file, a salary-sacrifice-to-pension line carries the benefit's gross pay code (the brutto löneart) rather than the net one used by other expenses. The amount on that row is the gross figure deducted from the allowance.

If the benefit has no gross pay code configured, or the covered amount is zero, the line is skipped, the same as any other expense without a usable löneart.

Where it lands in the Excel export

The readable Excel workbook shows the same logic across a few columns:

• The gross figure appears in the Brutto column.
• The configured gross pay code appears in Löneart för bruttolöneavdrag/bruttolöneutbetalning.
• The net pay code column (Löneart för nettolöneavdrag/nettolöneutbetalning), Förmånsvärde, and Löneart för förmånsvärde are all left empty for this benefit, because it is neither a net deduction nor a taxable benefit.

So a salary-sacrifice line reads as a gross deduction, side by side with the ordinary net and BIK lines in the same sheet.

How CLVR identifies it

CLVR recognises this benefit by its internal name, the benefit slug salary-sacrifice-to-pension. Only one benefit ever carries that slug, so the brutto pay code and the 24.26% rate are tied to that benefit alone. No category setting or toggle changes which benefit gets this treatment.

Troubleshooting

• The pension line is missing from the export. Check that the salary-sacrifice-to-pension benefit has a gross pay code (brutto löneart) configured. Without one the line is skipped. Ask your HR contact to confirm the pay code is set.
• The amount looks higher than the pension deposit. The figure on the line is the gross amount taken from the benefit allowance, which already includes the 24.26% särskild löneskatt. The pension deposit itself is the amount before that fee.
• There is no förmånsvärde on the line. That is expected. Salary sacrifice to pension is not a taxable benefit, so it never produces a förmånsvärde amount.