Childcare as an employee benefit: what employers can offer

An employer can offer in-home childcare as a staff benefit, either by covering all or part of the cost or by arranging a fixed point of contact that employees use at their own expense. As a rule the benefit is taxable for the employee, and Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) has specific rules for household services given as a benefit. What makes it work in practice is the same nanny every week, not an app for the odd evening.

It is ten past four at a consultancy near Slussen. Three people have already left, all with small children, all heading for a förskola (municipal preschool, from age one) that closes at half past five. They will log back in at nine, after bedtime. Nobody is doing anything wrong. But it is a cost for everyone involved, and it is a cost you can do something about.

The problem employers actually have

Parents of young children are often the most experienced people on the team, mid-career, and the ones with the least margin. Preschool closes. The child gets ill. The meeting overruns and pick-up cannot be moved. The result is not poor work but work at the wrong time, stress that shows in the team, and sometimes someone turning down an assignment or a promotion because the pieces do not fit. That is the backdrop against which childcare as a benefit should be understood: not as a luxury, but as a way of keeping people who would otherwise take another job with better hours.

Three ways to offer it

Model	How it works	Suits
The employer pays all or part	The employer covers part of the hourly cost, the family pays the rest. The benefit is taxed in the employee's hands.	Employers who want to give a tangible benefit to a defined group
The employer arranges the contact	The employer gives staff a direct route to us, and the family pays for itself with the RUT deduction as usual.	Employers who want to help without benefit taxation or any cost of their own
Emergency cover when needed	The employer pays for childcare on specific occasions, such as a conference or a late client delivery.	Businesses with clear peaks, where the problem is the occasional evening

Tax: what you need to sort out first

Here we want to be careful not to promise more than we know. The main rule is that anything an employer pays for an employee's private consumption is a taxable benefit, and in-home childcare is private consumption. At the same time, Skatteverket has specific rules for household services given as a benefit, and they affect both how the benefit is reported and how RUT (the Swedish 50 per cent tax deduction for household services, taken off the invoice directly) can be handled. These are rules that change and that depend on how the agreement is written. Our advice is simple: decide on the model, then call Skatteverket or your payroll team and ask them to describe exactly what applies to that model before you offer anything to staff. A benefit that turns out to land the employee with an unexpected tax bill in March is worse than no benefit at all. What the RUT deduction means for a private individual is explained in RUT deduction for nannies and babysitters.

Why an app for the odd evening does not solve the problem

Many employers have tried giving staff access to a service where you book a babysitter for the evening. It is used very little, and the reason is not the price. It is that parents do not want to hand a three-year-old to a stranger who turns up at five and whom the child has never seen. What genuinely takes the load off is when the same person comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, picks up from preschool, knows the child wants a snack straight away and can do bedtime. Then the parent can actually stay until six without watching the clock. Our whole model is built on that: the same nanny every time, interviewed by Aleksandra herself, with a criminal record extract, paediatric CPR training and references. Read more about Regular nanny or occasional babysitting.

How to get started, step by step

1. Count who is affected. How many employees have children under twelve? How many of them leave early several days a week? It is often fewer than you think, which makes the benefit cheaper than you think.
2. Choose a model. Pay, arrange the contact, or emergency cover only. Better to start small than big.
3. Check the tax treatment with Skatteverket for the model you have chosen. Write the answer down.
4. Contact us. Every family that wants a nanny gets a free first meeting with the nanny, exactly like every other family. The agreement is with the family, so the child keeps their nanny even if the parent changes jobs.
5. Tell staff in concrete terms. Not a policy on the intranet, but an email that says what applies, what it costs the employee and whom to call.
6. Follow up after six months. Is it being used? What do the people using it say? Adjust.

What it costs

The hourly price depends on how many hours a week the family needs, from 165 kr per hour after the RUT deduction for full-time and 199 kr per hour after RUT for occasional bookings, with everything in between depending on the number of hours. One child and two children cost the same. No start-up or monthly fees, no lock-in period. How much of it the employer covers is up to you. Current prices are on our prices page, and the exact price for each family is given at the first meeting. If you want a comparison with other ways of solving childcare, see How much does a nanny cost in Stockholm in 2026?.

How we do it with our families

One of our families in Nacka came to us through the father's employer, a small agency where the boss had grown tired of three out of ten people leaving at four o'clock. The agency contributes to the cost, the family pays the rest. Denise picks up from preschool on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at half past four, goes to the playground if it is not raining, makes a snack and starts dinner. The father gets home at six, sometimes half past, without having to ring the preschool and apologise. What changed most, he said, was not the hours but that he stopped watching the clock from three o'clock. And when he changed jobs in the spring, the family kept Denise. The agreement was theirs, after all.

Read more: RUT deduction for nannies and babysitters · Juggling work and small children · How much does a nanny cost in Stockholm in 2026? · Prices

Frequently asked questions

Is the employee taxed if the employer pays for the nanny?

As a rule, yes. Childcare paid for by the employer is a benefit the employee is taxed on, in the same way as other private consumption the employer pays for. Skatteverket has specific rules for household services given as a benefit. How it should be reported in your payroll is something to confirm with Skatteverket or your payroll team before you introduce the benefit.

Can the employer claim the RUT deduction?

No. RUT is a tax reduction for private individuals, not for companies. Skatteverket does, however, have rules for how RUT can be handled when household services are given to an employee as a benefit. Check the current rules with Skatteverket, it is not something to guess at.

What is the simplest way to start?

Let us meet the employees who want a nanny, one family at a time, with the same free first meeting every other family gets. The employer then decides whether to contribute to the cost, how much and in what way. You can start with a handful of families and see what it gives.

Is it only for large companies?

No. An agency with twenty employees, five of whom have small children, has the same problem as a large corporation: people leaving at four and worrying at six. Small employers are often quicker to do something about it, because the decision sits close to the person who sees the problem.

What happens if the employee leaves?

The family can keep the nanny and pay for it themselves, with the RUT deduction as usual. Our agreement is with the family, not with the employer, so the child does not have to change nanny because a parent changes jobs. The employer's contribution stops, and nothing else changes for the child or the nanny.