Is forskerordningen worth it? DKK 67k a year on a $150,000 Copenhagen offer, and where that leaves you against home
By Skyler Bissell · September 26, 2026 · 10 min read
DKK 67,169 a year, about $10,414, is what Denmark's flat 27% scheme is worth to one person taking a USD 150,000 offer in Copenhagen. That salary converts to DKK 967,500 at the build's exchange rate; on the ordinary ladder it keeps DKK 582,604 and under the scheme it keeps DKK 649,773. The rate moves from 39.8% to 32.8%. The mechanics of how a flat 27% after the 8% labour-market contribution comes to 32.84% of gross, and what the flat rate replaces line by line, are on the Denmark researcher tax scheme page. This one answers the question people ask after they have read that: is it a deal for me?
Forskerordningen (forskerskatteordningen, sections 48 E and F of the Danish withholding tax act) is worth it when three things are true at once: your salary clears the floor of DKK 65,400 a month averaged over the calendar year, your ordinary effective rate would sit well above 32.84%, and you have few deductions to give up. I priced all three for a mover, in the currency the offer arrives in, at three dollar salaries, against the take-home the same salary keeps in five home cities, and on the next raise. The definition and the statute live on the pair page above; this page is the arithmetic of saying yes.
TL;DR
- A USD 110,000 offer converts under the floor at today's rate, so the scheme is closed and the offer is taxed on the ordinary ladder at 35.8%. At USD 200,000 the scheme is worth double what it is at 150,000. Three offers.
- On USD 150,000 the scheme moves Copenhagen from below London to between Seattle and New York on take-home. It does not reach Austin. Against home.
- A DKK 100,000 raise costs DKK 32,840 under the scheme and DKK 54,368 on the ladder, which is why the value grows every year the salary does. The next raise.
Three dollar offers, priced in kroner
Danish offers arrive in kroner, and a mover reads them in the currency of the job they are leaving. So the three salaries below are dollar figures converted once, at the exchange rate in our build, and then taxed as Copenhagen taxes them: the 8% AM-bidrag on gross, then either the ordinary stack (bundskat, Copenhagen's kommuneskat, mellemskat and topskat above their thresholds, with the personal allowance and the two employment deductions) or the flat 27% on the 92% that remains, with no allowance and no deductions.
USD 110,000. This converts to DKK 709,500, under the DKK 786,000 a year our engine tests as the floor (twelve months of DKK 65,400 plus the ATP contribution). The scheme is closed, our engine refuses to apply it, and the salary pays the ordinary ladder: DKK 455,487 kept, 35.8% all in, $70,618 in dollars. The value of the scheme on this offer is DKK 0. The floor in dollars is $121,860 at this rate, and it moves every time the krone does, so an offer near it should be negotiated in kroner with the monthly figure written into the contract rather than in dollars.
USD 150,000. This is DKK 967,500, clear of the floor. The ordinary ladder takes DKK 384,896 of tax and contributions and leaves DKK 582,604, a rate of 39.8%. The scheme takes DKK 317,727 and leaves DKK 649,773, the flat 32.8%. In dollars that is $90,326 against $100,740. Held flat for the full 84 months the scheme is worth about DKK 470,000, which is seven copies of this year and no forecast of anything.
USD 200,000. This is DKK 1,290,000. The ordinary ladder now runs at 43.4%, takes DKK 560,232 and leaves DKK 729,768. The scheme still runs at 32.8%, takes DKK 423,636 and leaves DKK 866,364, or $134,320 in dollars against $113,142. The value is DKK 136,596 a year, about $21,178: the salary rose by a third and the value of the scheme doubled, because the ordinary ladder climbs and the flat rate does not.
| Copenhagen offer | Ordinary ladder keeps | Scheme keeps | Rate, ordinary to scheme | Worth per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copenhagen, USD 110,000 (DKK 709,500) | DKK 455,487 | Closed, under the floor | 35.8% | DKK 0 |
| Copenhagen, USD 150,000 (DKK 967,500) | DKK 582,604 | DKK 649,773 | 39.8% to 32.8% | DKK 67,169 ($10,414) |
| Copenhagen, USD 200,000 (DKK 1,290,000) | DKK 729,768 | DKK 866,364 | 43.4% to 32.8% | DKK 136,596 ($21,178) |
Engine figures, 2026, one single filer with no children, no voluntary pension contribution, Copenhagen's kommuneskat, no church tax. Dollar salaries converted at the exchange rate in our build and taxed in kroner; the floor is tested on the annual figure of DKK 786,000. The scheme column charges 27% of the post-contribution base and deducts nothing; the ordinary column applies the personal allowance and both employment deductions.
Against staying home, on the same USD 150,000
The question behind "is it worth it" is usually "does Copenhagen still pay less than where I am". Take-home is the cleanest place to start, so here is what USD 150,000 keeps for a single filer with no voluntary retirement contribution in five cities people move to Copenhagen from, on the same basis as the two Copenhagen rows above, ordered from most kept to least. Each figure is after income tax and employee contributions and before rent, healthcare premiums or anything else.
- Austin keeps $113,791 of USD 150,000, a 24.1% rate, with no state income tax.
- Seattle keeps $111,710, 25.5%, Washington's payroll levies being the only state layer.
- Under the scheme, Copenhagen comes next with $100,740 kept at the flat 32.8%, and this is the row the whole page turns on.
- New York keeps $100,242, 33.2%, with state and city income tax stacked on the federal bill.
- London keeps $98,406, 34.4%, on a salary above the personal allowance taper.
- On the ordinary ladder the same Copenhagen salary drops to sixth, with $90,326 kept at 39.8%.
- Berlin keeps $85,041, 43.3%, once the four social insurances are counted with the income tax.
So the scheme's job in a relocation decision is to move Copenhagen four places up that list. Without it a USD 150,000 Copenhagen offer keeps less than London and only a little more than Berlin; with it the offer keeps more than New York and lands about a tenth below Seattle. It does not catch Austin, and a person leaving Austin should not expect a Danish payslip to match theirs even under the scheme. What the list leaves out cuts both ways: the American rows carry a health premium and a deductible that the Danish rows do not, and the Danish rows are buying a health system, a year of parental leave and five weeks of statutory holiday with the tax. The all-in version, with the health bill inside the rate, is the subject of the true tax burden once healthcare is counted, and where the ordinary Danish layer sits against forty other countries with no regime applied is in take-home pay by country.
The next raise is where the scheme is quietest and largest
A flat rate changes the value of every raise for as long as it runs, and this is the part of the scheme that a comparison at one salary cannot show. In our engine a DKK 100,000 raise from DKK 1,000,000 to DKK 1,100,000 in Copenhagen costs DKK 54,368 in extra tax and contributions on the ordinary ladder, because at that level the whole raise lands in the tiers where bundskat, kommuneskat, mellemskat and topskat all apply on top of the labour-market contribution. Under the scheme the same raise costs DKK 32,840, the flat 32.84% of it, and nothing else, because there is no tier above the flat rate to reach.
That gap is why the scheme's value doubled between the USD 150,000 and USD 200,000 offers above, and it is why the honest way to read "worth it" is as a slope rather than a point. Someone who arrives on the floor and stays on the floor gains little, since at that salary the ordinary path's allowance and deductions do most of the work the flat rate would otherwise do (the pair page prices the floor exactly). Someone who arrives on the floor and grows into a senior salary over seven years gains more each year than the year before. An offer with a real promotion track behind it is worth more under this scheme than the first payslip suggests.
What saying yes costs
The scheme gives up things, and for some people the things given up are worth more than the flat rate. Skattestyrelsen's guidance is that a person covered by the scheme "is not entitled to any deductions" from the scheme income, and the list of what that removes is short but sometimes expensive.
- The allowance and the employment deductions. The personal allowance of DKK 54,100 and the earned-income and job deductions capped at DKK 63,300 and DKK 3,100 are gone. They are worth most on the smallest salaries the scheme admits, which is the whole reason the value is thin at the floor.
- Mortgage interest and commuting. Neither can be set against scheme income. A person who buys in Copenhagen with a large mortgage and would have used the interest deduction on the ordinary path loses it for as long as the scheme runs.
- Pension, the one to read before signing. Skattestyrelsen distinguishes two kinds of contribution. Contributions to a pension with tax relief are not A-income under the scheme, so they get no deduction and they do not count toward the DKK 65,400 floor. Contributions to a taxable scheme under section 53A are A-income: they count toward the floor and are taxed at the flat rate on the way in, with no Danish tax on the way out. A Danish employer's standard pension offer is often the first kind, and for a person who expects to leave Denmark after the scheme the second kind is usually the better fit. Our engine models no pension contribution on either path, so nothing above depends on this; the offer letter does.
- Everything that is not the salary. Income the scheme does not cover, from a rental abroad to a taxable investment account to free housing an employer provides, is taxed under the ordinary Danish rules. The flat rate covers the A-income from the qualifying job and nothing else.
- The last day. When the 84 months are used the ordinary ladder applies, the deductions return, and on the USD 150,000 offer the tax bill rises by the DKK 67,169 the scheme had been worth, in one payslip. Where that step sits beside the Dutch, Spanish and Belgian ones is on the pair page.
Two conditions worth restating because they decide the whole question before any arithmetic. The scheme must begin with the job: Danish tax liability and the employment have to start together, and a person who arrives first and finds the job second has missed it. And a job change inside Denmark keeps the scheme only if the gap between the two jobs is no more than one month and every other condition still holds. The full list, with the ten-year look-back and the researcher door, is on the pair page, and the reason our engine tests the salary floor alone is there too.
Greece published the mirror image of this design in 2020: no salary floor, a 50% exemption that is worth more the higher the salary, and no deductions given up, priced on an Athens payslip in Greece's expat tax regime. How Denmark's scheme compares with the six others our engine can price, and the reasoning for carrying Norway's and Ireland's as notes rather than numbers, is in the cluster's pillar, expat tax breaks decoded.
FAQ
Is the Danish researcher scheme worth it on a low salary?
Below the floor the question does not arise: the scheme is closed under DKK 65,400 a month averaged over the calendar year, and a USD 110,000 offer converts under that line at today's rate, so our engine prices it on the ordinary ladder. Just above the floor the value is real but thin, because the personal allowance and the employment deductions the ordinary path uses are worth most at that level and the scheme gives them up. The scheme is a discount that grows with salary.
Can I put money into a Danish pension while on the researcher scheme?
You can, but the tax treatment changes. Skattestyrelsen's guidance is that contributions to a pension with tax relief are not A-income under the scheme, so they get no deduction, and they do not count toward the salary floor either. Contributions to a taxable section 53A scheme are A-income: they count toward the floor and are taxed at the flat rate now, with no Danish tax on the way out. Which of the two an employer offers is worth reading before signing.
Does the researcher scheme make Copenhagen pay like a US city?
It closes most of the gap on take-home and none of the rest. On USD 150,000 the scheme lifts Copenhagen from below London to between Seattle and New York on take-home alone, and it stays behind Austin. That comparison leaves out the US health premium and the Danish services the tax buys, which is why the all-in comparison sits on a separate page.
What happens to my raise under the researcher scheme?
It is taxed at the flat rate, which is the scheme's quietest advantage. On the ordinary ladder a DKK 100,000 raise from DKK 1,000,000 in Copenhagen costs DKK 54,368 in extra tax and contributions in our engine, because it lands in the top tiers. Under the scheme it costs DKK 32,840, the flat 32.84% of the raise. The scheme is worth more every year your salary grows, until the 84 months run out.
If the offer is real, put your own figures into the New York to Copenhagen comparison or compare Copenhagen with your own city, and switch the regime toggle on and off. The difference between the two runs is the answer to this page's question for your salary and your household, and if the toggle changes nothing the offer is under the floor.
Sources. The scheme's rate, the 2026 monthly minimum and its averaging, the bar on deductions, the treatment of pension contributions with and without tax relief and under section 53A, the taxation of other income under the ordinary rules, and the one-month limit on a job change: Skattestyrelsen, tax scheme for researchers. The statutory basis is sections 48 E and 48 F of kildeskatteloven, read for the pair page through Den juridiske vejledning C.F.6.1.4. The list of deductions the scheme forgoes was checked against Expat Finance, the researcher tax scheme in 2026 (updated 11 June 2026); every figure on this page is the engine's or Skattestyrelsen's. All pages retrieved 26 September 2026. Danish, American, British and German tax figures are computed by cityparity's engine; per-field provenance is in data/_meta.json, per the methodology.
Figures here come from cityparity's per-city engine and were current at publication; tax rates, the scheme's floor and exchange rates move, so treat any single number as a strong estimate and run your own inputs. Where our comparison pages quote an equivalent salary, it is the bar an offer has to clear in the destination city and it is not a job offer. See the methodology.