Country guide · Sweden

Sweden: what an electronic körjournal must hold

By Andrei Zamiralov · Updated 1 Oct 2026

The whole list, not two readings

A lot of Swedish advice says the only hard requirement for a körjournal is the odometer reading at the start and end of the year. For an electronic journal that is not what Skatteverket says.

Its page on the körjournal is explicit: "Den elektroniska körjournalen ska innehålla alla de rubriker som visas i exemplet ovan." An electronic körjournal must contain every heading in the example:

• Registration number
• The year
• Date and odometer at the start and end of each trip
• Kilometres per trip
• Start and end address
• The purpose of the trip (ärende/syfte med resan)
• The places, companies or contacts visited — not needed for private trips
• Notes on driver and refuelling
• The odometer reading at the start and end of the year

Where the hand-kept journal differs

Skatteverket's page for employers introduces the same list more softly — as what a journal bör contain, a recommendation. That softer reading fits a journal kept by hand on paper. An automatic electronic log sits on the strict side, so the safe course is to treat every heading as required.

In practice the two readings end in the same place. The list is what an audit asks for, and the burden of showing how the car was used sits with you. A körjournal that cannot answer it loses the case.

Form, and how long to keep it

Paper, computer or electronic are all accepted, and an automatic electronic system is explicitly fine provided it holds the same data points.

Skatteverket's körjournal page sets no retention period of its own. If you are bokföringsskyldig — a sole trader, for example — bokföringslagen (7 kap. 2 §) has you keep your records for seven years. If you are an employee with a förmånsbil, the law gives you no fixed number; the practical horizon is Skatteverket's six-year window for reassessment (skatteförfarandelagen 66 kap. 27 §). Either way, keep exports rather than only an account in an app.

Two Swedish deductions rest on the same journal: the difference when your employer pays less than 25 kr per mil, and half the VAT on a leased car, which needs more than 100 mil of business driving a year.

Why an app rather than a notebook

Nothing above requires software; a notebook with those fields is fine, and Skatteverket says so. What software changes is which part survives. Nobody reconstructs a year of start addresses and odometer readings in March.

DriveHub records each trip in the background and asks afterwards which were business. The report prints the date, both addresses, the distance, the odometer at the start and end of each trip and at the year's boundaries, the purpose in your own words, and the company or contact you visited (from the client of the place you drove to).

One heading is left to you: the notes on driver and refuelling. DriveHub does not record refuelling, so write it into the trip's note if your journal needs it.

This page states what Skatteverket's own guidance says, and links it so you can check. It is not tax advice. It can't account for your circumstances. Where money is involved, ask your revisor — and bring the journal.

Longer reads

• Sweden says where your körjournal must be kept, not only for how long
• Leasingbil och moms in Sweden: half the VAT on the lease, all of it on running costs
• Your employer pays less than 25 kr per mil: the avdrag för mellanskillnad