Unemployment benefits after you’ve been self-employed

You must close your business to qualify for unemployment benefits. As a general rule, there will be a three-week non-eligibility period from the date you officially deregister with the Danish Business Authority and SKAT before you can receive unemployment benefits. 

You also have the option to close your business by submitting a solemn declaration while waiting for the official closure certificate from the Danish Business Authority and SKAT. In this case, you will generally be subject to a non-eligibility period of two months. If you submit your official closure certificate within the two-month deadline, you’ll be entitled to unemployment benefits from the day after the date shown on the certificate – but no earlier than three weeks from the day we received your solemn declaration. 

Please note that we must receive your official closure certificate within six months of receiving your solemn declaration. If we don’t receive the certificate within the six-month deadline, you won’t be entitled to unemployment benefits for the period up until the day we receive it. At the same time, you’ll be using up a part of your eligibility for unemployment benefits for the period between the end of the six months and the day we receive the certificate. 

Once you’ve stopped being self-employed full-time, you can’t start a new business for at least six months. If you choose to restart your business before the six months have passed, you’ll lose your right to receive unemployment benefits until the full six months have gone by. 

To be eligible for unemployment benefits after closing your business, you must submit at least the following: 

• Documentation showing that your business has been registered as closed with the Danish Business Authority and SKAT.  
• The three most recent completed tax assessment notices (årsopgørelser) from your business. 
• Unemployment benefits application (self-employed). 

Also, don’t forget to register as unemployed on jobnet.dk. 

To qualify for unemployment benefits after being self-employed, you must meet several conditions. 

For example, you must have stopped working in your business. This means either officially closing or transferring the business, or solemnly declaring that the company is undergoing winding-up proceedings. 

You’ve also stopped working in your business if you’ve left it, and your co-owners or your spouse is continuing it. 

In the three years leading up to your unemployment, you must either: 

• Have earned DKK 273,504 (2025) based on your total A and B income and profits derived from your business. The maximum amount you can include is DKK 22,792 per month (2025). (If you’re still eligible for unemployment benefits (dagpengeret) from previously or have valid, unused hours left in your employment account, you’ll instead need to have worked at least 1,924 hours as a paid employee). 

or 

• Have earned a total profit of at least DKK 273,504 (2025) solely from self-employment within the last five years (including any permitted extensions). The most recently completed assessment year (tax year) before your application for unemployment benefits counts as the final year in the five-year earnings period, so the five years are counted backwards from that point. 

You must also be registered as unemployed on jobnet.dk to receive unemployment benefits. Additionally, you must be fully available to the labour market and actively apply for jobs. 

There are several ways to close your business  

To qualify for unemployment benefits, your business must generally be discontinued, i.e. fully closed or sold.  

You must no longer be able to continue operating the business through any of the six situations we recognise: 

• sale or transfer 
• closure 
• bankruptcy 
• compulsory sale or creditor administration 
• leasing out the business 
• resigning from a business that is continued by your spouse or co-owners 

When applying for unemployment benefits or early retirement benefits (efterløn), you must submit documentation showing that the business has been closed or transferred, or that you no longer work in it. 

Depending on why you stopped working, different requirements determine when it’s considered cessation of work. 

Closure of the business – through sale or shutdown 

If your business has been fully sold or closed, you have ceased your involvement in the business when this has been registered with the Danish Business Authority and your tax obligations have either been transferred or terminated. 

As documentation, you must send us a copy of the official closure certificate issued by the Danish Business Authority. This can only be issued once any operating assets and inventory have been written off, sold, transferred or withdrawn from the business. 

Note that the official closure date may differ between the Business Register (CVR) and SKAT. In such cases, the latest of the two dates will determine when your business is officially considered closed. 

Closing your business - not CVR-registered 

If your business is not CVR-registered, you can instead document that the company has been closed. This can be achieved by providing evidence that the company is registered as discontinued in other public registers, such as the deregistration of a provider number or an official closure certificate from SKAT. 

Closing the business - winding up by giving a solemn declaration 

If you haven’t yet sold, transferred, or withdrawn your operating assets, inventory, or equipment, you can still apply for unemployment benefits. To do this, you’ll need to submit a solemn declaration confirming that you’re currently winding up your business and state that you would like to apply for unemployment benefits while the closure is underway. 

You’ll be eligible to receive unemployment benefits from the day we receive your solemn declaration and for up to six months thereafter. (You won’t receive benefits during the initial two-month non-eligibility period, however). The non-eligibility period may be shortened (though it must be at least three weeks) if you submit proof of closure within the two-month deadline. (For example, if you close your business on 1 April based on a solemn declaration and submit the proof of closure from the Danish Business Authority on 5 May, you’ll be eligible for unemployment benefits from 6 May – the day after we receive the certificate). 

During the six months following receipt of your solemn declaration, you’re free to wind up your business and deregister it on virk.dk. 

Any hours spent winding up the business will be deducted from your unemployment benefits payment. Please remember to send us the official closure certificate as soon as you receive it. If we don’t receive the certificate within six months, your unemployment benefit payments will stop from the six-month mark. However, you’ll continue to use up your eligibility – regardless of whether you’re unemployed or not – until we receive the official closure certificate (e.g. if you’ve started working full time). 

Closure of the business - leasing 

If you lease out your entire business, you must send us a copy of the lease agreement. The agreement must be mutually binding and non-terminable for at least three years, and neither you nor your spouse may work in the leased business. This also applies to work in any of the lessee’s other companies if they are of the same type and there is a degree of shared operation. 

If the lease agreement is only non-terminable from your side, you can still be considered to have ceased operating the business if you: 

1. have registered a minimum of 1,924 hours of salaried work under the Act on an Income Register within the past 15 months, or
2. have registered at least 962 hours of salaried work within the past eight months and, at the start of your employment, there was a significant restructuring of the business that reduced your workload in the business.

Closing the business - asset management 

You may be considered to have ceased operations if your company has been converted into a holding company (a limited liability company) and the company’s objects clause has been changed to asset management or similar. 

You must provide documentation that the Danish Business Authority has been notified of this change. You must also document that the company no longer conducts any business activity and that any operating assets, etc., which previously formed the basis of the business, have been disposed of – for example, by deregistering for VAT. 

Closing the business - bankruptcy 

In case of bankruptcy, you are considered unemployed from the date the Insolvency Court issues the bankruptcy order. You must therefore send us a copy of the bankruptcy order issued by the Insolvency Court.   

You, your spouse or your live-in partner may not reacquire the business. 

Please note that if a bankruptcy order has been issued in Court, the latest possible date on which you can be considered to have ceased operating the business is the first working day after the Court received the bankruptcy petition. 

Closing the business - compulsory sale 

In the case of a compulsory sale, the business is considered closed once it has been sold at an auction. 

You must send us the petition for the compulsory sale, a statement from the mortgagee confirming that they are managing and overseeing the business, and the auction deed or a transcript of the court records from the Enforcement Court. 

In order for you to be eligible for unemployment benefits, the buyer of your business must not be your spouse, live-in partner, or underage child(/children). 

Closing the business - employee co-owner 

If you work in a company with multiple owners, you can be considered to have ceased your business activity upon resigning as a co-owner, which is registered with the Danish Business Authority. You may also be deemed to have ceased operations if you no longer have significant influence over the company. 

Any changes in ownership must be registered with the Danish Business Authority, and a copy must be sent to the unemployment insurance fund (a-kasse). You must also have stopped working for the company. 

Income derived from self-employment can count towards meeting the income and work requirements for unemployment benefit eligibility. 

You must have a finalised annual tax assessment covering a period of up to three years before becoming unemployed. 

Income and hours from self-employment (as stated in your tax assessment) can be combined with income and hours from paid employment during this period. 

Income from self-employment may also be included in the calculation of your unemployment benefit rate (dagpengesats). 

Here too, a finalised annual tax assessment is required, and income from self-employment can be combined with income from paid work. 

If you don’t meet the income or work requirement within the past three years, you may instead qualify based on the past five years. 

In this case, only income from self-employment can be included – it cannot be combined with income from paid employment. 

Similarly, your unemployment benefit rate will be calculated solely based on your business profits and your two best financial years within the last five years.