ROT vs Green Technology Deduction in Sweden

For Swedish field-service businesses, knowing the difference between the ROT deduction and the green technology deduction (grön teknik) is the line between a quote that wins and a customer who hesitates. Both are tax credits that the customer claims through your invoice, but they apply to different jobs, cover different costs, and you cannot stack them on the same work — so picking the right one matters on every offer you send.

What is the ROT deduction and how does it work?

ROT (renovering, ombyggnad, tillbyggnad) is a tax reduction for renovation, conversion and extension work performed in or near a private home that the customer owns. As a general rule, ROT covers 30% of the labour cost — not materials, travel or equipment — up to a per-person annual cap that Skatteverket sets. The customer never pays the full price up front: you deduct the credit directly on the invoice and reclaim it from Skatteverket.

Typical ROT work for the trades includes rewiring, installing or moving sockets and lighting, replacing a consumer unit, plumbing renovations, bathroom work, carpentry and general home conversions. Because the credit applies to labour only, an accurate split between labour and materials on the quote is essential — if the labour share is wrong, the deduction is wrong.

Key ROT facts to remember

• Applies to labour, not materials or call-out costs.
• The customer must own the home and have enough tax to claim against.
• There is a per-person annual ceiling that resets each year.
• ROT and RUT (cleaning, household services) share a combined annual cap.

What is the green technology deduction (grön teknik)?

The green technology deduction is a separate tax reduction aimed at climate-friendly installations in a private home. It is its own credit with its own rules and its own ceiling, and crucially it is more generous than ROT on materials: grön teknik covers both labour and material costs, which ROT does not. This is the credit most relevant to solar and electrification work.

It generally applies to three categories: installing grid-connected solar panels, installing a system for storing self-produced electricity (home batteries), and installing charging points for electric vehicles. Each category has its own percentage rate and the deduction is applied on the invoice in the same way as ROT — the customer pays the reduced amount and you claim the rest back. Because the rates and the annual ceiling are revised periodically, always confirm the current figures with Skatteverket before quoting.

ROT or grön teknik — which one applies to your job?

The deciding question is simple: what is being installed, and is it on the green-technology list? If the work is solar panels, battery storage or an EV charger in a private home, it almost always falls under grön teknik — and you should use it, because it covers materials too. Everything else (rewiring, sockets, bathrooms, general renovation) goes through ROT.

You cannot claim both credits for the same task, so a mixed project needs to be split correctly. A common example: a customer wants solar panels on the roof and, separately, a new consumer unit and rewiring inside. The solar installation is green technology; the rewiring is ROT. On the same job you may legitimately apply two different credits to two different line items — but only if your quote separates the work cleanly and assigns each part to the right rule.

Practical rules of thumb

• Solar panels, home batteries, EV chargers → green technology deduction (labour + materials).
• Renovation, electrical, plumbing, carpentry → ROT deduction (labour only).
• Never apply both to the same line item.
• Each credit has its own annual ceiling — track them per customer.

How an all-in-one field-service system keeps deductions correct

The errors that cost you money rarely come from misunderstanding the law — they come from the admin. A wrong labour/material split, a credit applied to the wrong line, or a missing identity check on the property owner can mean Skatteverket rejects the claim and the customer is suddenly billed the difference. That is exactly the kind of friction that loses repeat work.

This is where a single connected platform earns its place. With FieldApp, quotes and offers calculate the ROT deduction automatically from your labour lines, e-signature locks in customer approval, and the same data flows straight into invoicing with Stripe and Fortnox sync — no re-keying between the field, the office and the accountant. Your team logs hours, photos and self-inspection protocols (egenkontroll) in the offline field app, so the labour figures behind every deduction are real and defensible. Because FieldApp is one white-label system covering booking, scheduling, the field app, the time clock and invoicing, the deduction is handled consistently from first quote to final invoice.

ROT and grön teknik are not competitors — they are two tools for two kinds of work, and using the right one on every job is a competitive advantage. Always verify current rates and annual caps with Skatteverket, get the labour/material split right, and let your software do the arithmetic. If you want quotes that apply the deduction correctly and an invoice trail that holds up, try FieldApp free for 14 days and see how much cleaner your offers become.