Overview
The most interesting proposal in Europe this week came from the Swedish finance ministry, and it turns on a distinction most tax codes never make. Under draft rules published on 3 September, the place that counts as your official workplace would depend on whether remote work is something you have agreed to perform or something you merely choose to do. Work from home under an arrangement with your employer and those days count towards fixing your tax base; work from home because you prefer it and normally they do not. Sweden is proposing to treat mandated and voluntary homeworking as different things in law — a line that will have to be drawn somewhere in every European tax system eventually.
Two national datasets arrived alongside it, and both cut against the return-to-office narrative. Germany’s ifo Institute put home working at 24.9% of the economy in August, with its researcher stating that for years there has been no significant change in the share, in any sector. Brussels reported that 55% of people working in the region now work from home at least sometimes, against roughly 25% in 2019, with intensive homeworking up tenfold. Employer announcements have been loud; the aggregate numbers have barely moved.
The week also produced a clean worked example of the rule that catches cross-border remote workers everywhere. Northern Ireland residents employed by the Republic’s public service are capped at one remote day a week — not by policy preference, but because performing 25% or more of your working time in your country of residence moves your social insurance to that country. It is the single most common trap for anyone living in one European country and employed in another.
EU-Level Policy & Regulation
The European Parliament’s employment committee adopted a legislative-initiative report on 2 September calling for binding EU minimum requirements on work-related psychosocial risk. The text would require a psychosocial risk assessment before any significant reorganisation — explicitly including changes to teleworking arrangements and the introduction of automated decision-making or worker-monitoring systems — carried out with workers and their representatives. It also reiterates the right to disconnect. The indicative plenary date is 5 October; if Parliament approves, the Commission has three months to respond. (European Parliament Legislative Observatory)
We covered the committee’s position last week. What is new is the procedure file and the plenary date.
Country Updates
Sweden
The Finance Ministry’s draft law Moderna och enklare skatteregler för arbetslivet, sent for Council on Legislation review on 3 September, would fix the tjänsteställe — the tax “place of employment” — by the employer’s intention at the start of an engagement. The place where more than 50% of working time is to be performed becomes the tjänsteställe. Failing that, the employer’s premises, if visited on around 80% of working days. Failing that, the home.
The distinction that matters sits underneath: remote work an employee is to perform under an agreement counts towards the assessment, while remote work the employee may choose to do normally does not. In practice a standard two-or-three-day hybrid arrangement would leave the office as the tax workplace.
The rules are proposed to take effect on 1 January 2027, but they are not law. They still require Council on Legislation review, a proposition to the Riksdag and inclusion in the autumn budget, which the government has explicitly said is not guaranteed. (Lagrådsremiss, regeringen.se · EY Sweden analysis)
Separately, Swedish employers have spent the year tightening office requirements — Volvo Group to full attendance, Scania to five days, Ericsson at 60% since 2024, Tre at four days and Tetra Pak in Lund heading for five. A KTH study found half the companies examined fail to reach even 40% office occupancy. Volvo also faces a physical constraint, having cut office space during the hybrid years. (Kollega)
Ireland
Northern Ireland residents are the only people in the Republic’s public service, aside from posted consular staff, permitted to work remotely outside the State. The permission is narrower than it sounds. Performing 25% or more of your working time in your country of residence shifts your social insurance from Irish PRSI to UK National Insurance, and two or three days at home amounts to 40–60% of working time. Employers therefore cap cross-border remote working at one day a week and require a written agreement saying so.
There is a tax layer on top. Four days a week in Ireland is likely to trigger Irish tax residency, obliging PAYE withholding on all income — including the day worked in the UK — recoverable only by filing a return. (The Irish Times)
Grow Remote also published a call for a National Remote Jobs Strategy, counting 161 live roles open to Ireland-based candidates at n8n, Deel and Revolut alone. Its argument is that Ireland’s enterprise agency frameworks are built around site-based employment and have no remit to attract distributed employers at all. (Grow Remote)
Spain
Foreign nationals now account for 15.4% of Spain’s self-employed register, up from 12% four years ago. Registrations by foreign nationals in the RETA regime rose from 399,890 to 532,356 between July 2022 and July 2026 — up 33.1% — while Spanish-national autónomos fell slightly, to 2,930,326. Without foreign registrations the self-employed population would have shrunk over the period. (Europa Press, on a UPTA study of Social Security data)
If you are working for yourself in Spain, our guide to becoming autónomo covers the registration process and what it costs.
Greece
Greece announced at the Thessaloniki International Fair that the property transfer tax for third-country nationals buying residential property will rise from 3% to 15% — 3.09% to 15.45% once the 3% municipal surcharge is included. The measure applies only to residential property bought by natural persons who are non-EU/EEA citizens without long-term resident status. Commercial property, land and purchases by legal entities are out of scope, and the start date has moved from 1 January to 1 July 2027.
It has been announced rather than legislated. No bill has been published and there are no transitional rules yet for deposits or purchases already in progress, so anyone mid-transaction should take advice on where they stand. The current 3.09% applies until then. (Οικονομικός Ταχυδρόμος)
Denmark
The Folketing passed an amendment to the Aliens Act on 3 September creating a new beløbsordning work permit route, effective 1 January 2027. Nationals of 16 selected third countries can obtain residence and work permits for full-time roles at certified Danish employers, provided the post is covered by a collective agreement and pays at least DKK 322,000 a year at 2026 levels. Certification requires at least ten full-time Danish employees, two years of trading and a declaration to SIRI. The scheme carries an “unemployment brake” that suspends it if seasonally adjusted gross unemployment passes a ministerial threshold. (EY · DLA Piper)
Research & Data
Germany holds flat. The ifo Institute’s August business survey put home working at 24.9% across the economy and 35.1% in services, against 17.7% in wholesale, 16.4% in industry, 6.2% in retail and 5.1% in construction. Researcher Jean-Victor Alipour: “for years we have seen no significant changes in the home-office share — neither overall nor by sector.” (ifo Institut)
Brussels settles high. New figures from the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis show 55% of people working in the Brussels-Capital Region did some work from home in 2025, against roughly 25% in 2019. Intensive homeworking — at least half of total hours — has risen tenfold to a quarter of workers. Commuters work from home considerably more than Brussels residents, 62% against 47%. Fully permanent homeworking remains rare, at 2%. (BISA)
What a remote day does to the body. University of Turku researchers fitted thigh-mounted accelerometers to 99 hybrid workers and measured the same people on office days and remote days. Remote days brought about 15 minutes more sleep, and 45 minutes more sitting or lying down. Standing, light activity and moderate-to-vigorous activity all fell. Lead author Kristin Suorsa attributes much of the sedentary increase to lost standing time, since standing workstations are rarely available at home, and to the walking and cycling of the commute being replaced by sitting. (University of Turku)
What to watch next week
- 15 September — Prinsjesdag in the Netherlands, where Dutch tax measures affecting cross-border and remote workers are usually set out.
- 30 September — the UK Department for Business and Trade consultation on workplace monitoring technologies closes. It covers keystroke logging, screen capture, location tracking and algorithmic management, all of which land hardest on people working from home.
- 5 October — indicative plenary date for the European Parliament’s psychosocial risks report.
- Spain — the royal decree transposing the transparent working conditions directive was approved by the Council of Ministers on 8 September but has not yet appeared in the BOE. We will cover it properly once it is published, including the date it actually takes effect.