Accounting for beauty salons

Staff register in body and beauty care

Body and beauty care is one of the industries that must keep a staff register (personalliggare). This means treatment of a person's body or care of a person's appearance. The Tax Agency gives examples such as skincare, make-up, manicure, pedicure, massage, piercing, spray tanning, teeth whitening and tattooing. Lashes and brows are not on the list of examples, but the legal definition covers all care of a person's appearance. The register records each day who is working on the premises and when, not just employees.

You do not need to keep a register if you run a sole trader business (enskild firma) where only you, your spouse and children under 16 work, or a close company (fåmansföretag) where only the person running the company and the same family members work. If you also sell other things, such as products, you do not need to keep a register if beauty care makes up less than 25 per cent of turnover.

Inspection fees

• SEK 12 500 per inspection, plus SEK 2 500 for each working person who is not recorded
• SEK 25 000 instead of SEK 12 500 if a new shortcoming is found within one year of a previous decision

Cash register

If you take payment in cash or by card, sales must be recorded in a certified cash register, and the customer must be offered a receipt. The cash register must be registered with the Tax Agency. There are exceptions, for example if cash and card sales are insignificant, where the Tax Agency looks in particular at whether they are normally no more than four price base amounts (prisbasbelopp) per year. If there is no cash register, the inspection fee is SEK 12 500 per inspection. Read more about cash registers at the Tax Agency.

VAT on treatments and products

Beauty treatments and products are sold at the standard VAT rate of 25 per cent. We reconcile the cash register's daily reports and card settlements against the bookkeeping and make sure gift vouchers are recorded correctly.

Injections must be notified to IVO

Aesthetic injection treatments do not count as body and beauty care under the staff register rules. Instead they are covered by the Act on Aesthetic Surgical Procedures and Aesthetic Injection Treatments. The business must be registered in the register of healthcare providers (vårdgivarregister) kept by the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) no later than one month before it starts, and IVO states that medical competence is required from licensed nurses, doctors or dentists. Read more at IVO and on our page for healthcare businesses. If you run a hair salon, there is a separate page for hair salons.

Fixed price for beauty salons

• Ongoing bookkeeping with reconciliation against the cash register
• Payroll and employer declarations, see payroll
• Routines for the staff register and cash register
• Year-end closing, annual report and tax return

Fixed monthly price based on the number of vouchers and employees, no lock-in period, three months' notice. See prices.