Paying creators in Denmark: the payer's obligations

Questions and answers

What must my company report when we pay an influencer?

There are two monthly reporting duties, not one, and creator work usually sits on the second. The first is the honorar route: if the fee is B-indkomst for an individual and you pay it in the course of your business, the amount goes to the income register (eIndkomst). The authority is skatteindberetningsloven § 4, implemented in skatteindberetningsbekendtgørelsen § 8 - and for private payers, meaning anyone other than the state, a region or a municipality, it reaches only amounts paid in money on which no VAT is payable under the VAT Act.

The second is skatteindberetningsloven § 44, and it is the one that catches most paid creator collaborations. It requires a monthly report from anyone who, in the course of their business, has paid or credited consideration for the use of copyright and similar rights, or consideration for the advertising use of a person. Den juridiske vejledning states its reach in a single sentence: the duty applies “uanset om modtageren er skattepligtig til Danmark, om modtageren er en fysisk eller juridisk person, eller om vederlaget er momspligtigt” - regardless of the recipient's Danish tax liability, regardless of whether the recipient is a natural or a legal person, and regardless of whether VAT is due on the fee. It covers payment in kind as well as in money, and payment in kind is valued at market value.

So an agreed advertising collaboration is reportable by you whether or not VAT appears on the invoice, and whether or not the creator bills through a company. The VAT question decides which route a fee travels, not whether you have a duty at all. Sources: Den juridiske vejledning A.B.1.2.2.2; A.B.1.2.8.7.

Can you pay an influencer who has no CVR number?

Yes. Nothing requires a creator to hold a CVR number before you may pay them, and the CVR number does not decide your obligations either way. On the honorar route it is VAT that decides: if the invoice arrives without VAT because the creator falls below the DKK 50,000 annual business-turnover threshold, the amount is precisely what that duty captures. Den juridiske vejledning says so directly - consideration for normally VAT-liable services, invoiced without VAT because the supplier is not VAT-liable under momsloven § 71 e(1), is covered. And where the engagement is an advertising collaboration, § 44 applies in parallel and asks neither question: not the CVR number, not the VAT. Sources: A.B.1.2.2.2; A.B.1.2.8.7.

What if the creator invoices through their own company?

The honorar route falls away; § 44 does not. The § 4 duty presupposes a personal service, and a legal entity cannot supply one - so if you pay an ApS or A/S, the consideration is the company's income and is outside that route. If the creator is a sole proprietorship or a partnership, it stays inside, even where the amount includes payment for hired help. But § 44 is framed on your own activity rather than on what sits at the other end: Den juridiske vejledning states that the duty applies whether the recipient is a natural or a legal person. For an advertising collaboration, incorporating does not move the reporting off you - it moves which provision puts it there. Beyond that, the treatment of company-form recipients is not settled ground, and a programme that routes significant spend through creator companies is worth putting to an adviser rather than to a rule of thumb. Sources: A.B.1.2.2.2; A.B.1.2.8.7.

When must we withhold income tax and labour-market contribution?

When the engagement is in substance an employment relationship. There is no threshold or checkbox that settles it: Den juridiske vejledning describes an overall assessment of the actual working relationship - the content of any collective agreements and contracts, the legal relationship between the parties, and how the work is in fact organised. The more you direct when and how the work is done, the closer to employment. Get it wrong and the consequence is not the creator's: under kildeskatteloven § 69, a payer who has been negligent is jointly liable for the 8% labour-market contribution and the income tax that was not withheld - per creator, per year, with several years open to reassessment. Across a whole programme that risk is measured in millions, not thousands. One exception is worth knowing before you compute it: since 1 January 2026 the labour-market contribution rate is 0% up to and including 31 December of the income year in which the person turns 17, so a young creator who turns 18 at any point in a year carries the full 8% for the whole of that year. Sources: A.B.1.2.2.2; A.D.5.2.2; C.A.12.3.

Is the creator self-employed, a fee recipient or a hobbyist - and who decides?

It is decided case by case, and Skatterådet has ruled on it for creators three times since mid-2025, with different outcomes. A Roblox skin designer was not carrying on a business despite a multi-million-krone total, because the income came from one platform on that platform's terms, over a short period, alongside full-time study, and without the usual business markers (SKM2025.400.SR). A creator on a subscription platform was self-employed: seven-figure turnover, costs of DKK 250,000-300,000 a year and six to seven hours a day (SKM2026.14.SR). And a journalist running their own online outlet was self-employed even though there was no legal right to the income (SKM2026.135.SR). In short: scale, cost structure, and how much of the operation the creator controls. You cannot settle this on the creator's behalf - but you carry the consequences of applying the wrong treatment. Sources: SKM2025.400.SR; SKM2026.14.SR; SKM2026.135.SR.

Is VAT due on an influencer collaboration?

As a starting point yes, where the collaboration carries concrete contractual requirements. In SKM2026.31.LSR, Landsskatteretten held that influencer collaborations specifying the number of posts, publication timing, product visibility, tags and the brand's prior approval are VAT-liable advertising services under momsloven § 4 - and that the artist and journalist exemption does not apply, whatever creative latitude the creator has in execution. Skatterådet went the same way for a podcast host in SKM2026.375.SR: editorial freedom was not enough for exemption under momsloven § 13(1)(7), and the promotional activity owed under the same contract was an ancillary supply following the main supply's VAT treatment rather than its own. For you as payer the practical point is this: if the service is VAT-liable and the creator is VAT-registered, VAT appears on the invoice and the amount falls outside the honorar route. It does not fall outside § 44, which applies to advertising work whether or not the fee is VAT-liable - so on these facts VAT moves the duty from one provision to the other rather than removing it. If the creator is below DKK 50,000 and invoices without VAT, both routes can reach the same payment. Sources: SKM2026.31.LSR; SKM2026.375.SR.

Does this apply when we pay in product rather than cash?

Yes. The tax minister put it as plainly as it can be put: “If you have income via OnlyFans or other social media, you must pay tax on it. That applies whether you are paid in cash, products or gift cards.” Skattestyrelsen's guidance counts products and gifts at market value - including those a creator receives unsolicited. And for VAT purposes, products received count towards the taxable amount unless it is documented that they were loaned and returned. Your own reporting duty travels with it: skatteindberetningsloven § 44, stk. 2 covers payment in kind as well as in money, valued at market value, so a collaboration paid entirely in product is reportable by you even though no money moved. We have set out valuation, documentation and reporting of gifts and free product in a separate guide. Sources: skm.dk, 30 October 2025; sktst.dk, 3 November 2025; SKM2026.31.LSR; A.B.1.2.8.7.

What does it cost if we do not report?

There are two bills, and the small one arrives first. Failure to report on time attracts a fixed penalty graduated by headcount: DKK 5,000 (1-4 employees), 10,000 (5-19), 20,000 (20-49), 40,000 (50-99) and 80,000 (100+) for reporting to eIndkomst. Other reporting duties are graduated by the number of reports across the same bands. Skattestyrelsen closes these cases with administrative penalty notices - no court case is needed. The large bill is the liability under kildeskatteloven § 69, which has no ceiling: it follows the amounts that should have been withheld. Sources: Den juridiske vejledning A.C.3.5.3.5; A.D.5.2.2.

How likely is anyone to notice?

More likely than a few years ago, because the underlying data has changed. Under the EU's DAC7 directive, digital platforms report their users' income to tax authorities, and Denmark has international agreements covering exchange with foreign platforms. The same data that exposes a creator who has under-reported also shows who paid them. Enforcement capacity on the company side is real in parallel: the social-dumping effort alone carried out more than 3,000 company inspections in 2024 and issued claims of DKK 548m, and between 2020 and 2024 the same effort closed around 7,800 cases, finding errors in just over 3,700 of them. That is a different domain - but it is the same enforcement machinery. Sources: sktst.dk, 3 November 2025; sktst.dk, 30 June 2025.

Does the exposure go beyond tax?

Yes. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman states that parties other than the influencer may, on a case-by-case assessment, also be liable for undisclosed advertising: “This may for example be the company whose products the influencer markets, or a management agency that has advised the influencer.” Published fines in cases against influencers range from DKK 15,000 to 40,000. Marketing law and tax law are separate tracks, but they land on the same collaboration. Source: forbrugerombudsmanden.dk.

What should we be able to produce if asked?

Per engagement, kept from the outset: who the recipient is and in what capacity (individual, sole proprietorship or company), the basis for that classification, the contract with its concrete delivery requirements, the invoice with or without VAT, the valuation of any product or gift cards together with the source of that value, and the receipt for the report filed. None of it is hard to obtain at the moment of payment. All of it is hard to reconstruct two years later, when the campaign is long finished and the creator no longer necessarily answers email. That is the whole difference between an archive and a problem.

In short

The four decisions that set your obligations

• 1. What was the fee for? Advertising use of a person, or use of copyright and similar rights, puts it on skatteindberetningsloven § 44 - which asks nothing about VAT and nothing about the recipient's legal form. Other personal services go down the § 4 honorar route instead.
• 2. Is there VAT on the amount? It decides the honorar route only: invoice with VAT, outside it; invoice without VAT because the creator is below DKK 50,000, inside it. It does not decide § 44.
• 3. Is it a fee or employment? An overall assessment of contract, legal relationship and how the work is actually organised. If it is employment, tax and labour-market contribution must be withheld - and the § 69 liability is yours.
• 4. Does product or a gift card form part of it? Market value is taxable income for the creator, and § 44, stk. 2 makes payment in kind reportable by you at that value - including when no money moves at all. Gift cards raise a further question of their own, covered in the gifted-product guide.

This page is general information about the rules, not tax advice on a specific matter. Every reference points to the authorities' own sources so each point can be checked independently. Last reviewed 11 September 2026 against Den juridiske vejledning 2026-2.