Sweden orders six crypto firms to pay $56M in additional taxes

Sweden's tax agency, Skatteverket, has ordered six crypto companies in Boden to pay 540 million Swedish kronor (about $56 million) in back taxes and penalties. Regulators state the firms structured operations to hide crypto mining and claim invalid data center tax breaks. While lower courts have sided with the state, HIVE Digital Technologies subsidiary Bikupan Datacenter has appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. Facing insolvency, Bikupan has entered restructuring, and HIVE is pivoting its Boden facility toward AI computing.

Swedish crypto tax enforcement

• ▪The tax enforcement action is part of a broader industry audit running from 2024 to 2026, during which nine crypto companies nationwide received tax adjustments exceeding 500 million Swedish kronor.
• ▪Sweden's tax authority, Skatteverket, ordered six crypto companies operating in Boden to pay approximately 540 million Swedish kronor (about $56 million) in additional taxes and penalties.

Corporate structure tax misuse

• ▪Skatteverket head of intelligence Patrik Lillqvist criticized the companies, stating that their arrangements were designed to secure tax advantages by hiding that they were engaged in mining.
• ▪Skatteverket stated that the audited crypto companies used special corporate structures to conceal their crypto mining activities to obtain tax benefits they were not entitled to.

Tax benefit eligibility disputes

• ▪The audited crypto companies claimed tax incentives designed for conventional data centers and VAT deductions without meeting the necessary operational criteria.
• ▪Sweden's administrative court and administrative court of appeal have sided with Skatteverket in the tax dispute cases they have considered so far.

Bikupan Datacenter legal challenge

• ▪Bikupan Datacenter entered corporate restructuring after becoming unable to pay its debts and tax penalties while its dispute remains under consideration by the Supreme Administrative Court.
• ▪Bikupan Datacenter CEO Johanna Törnblad rejected Skatteverket's assessment, arguing that independent external mining pools performed the actual crypto mining while Bikupan only sold computing capacity.
• ▪Bikupan Datacenter, a subsidiary of HIVE Digital Technologies operating in Boden and Robertsfors, has contested its tax assessment and taken the dispute to Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court.

Boden crypto mining hub

• ▪Sweden removed electricity tax relief for data centers in 2023, raising electricity taxes and increasing operational tensions for energy-intensive Bitcoin miners in the country.
• ▪Boden, a city in northern Sweden, has historically attracted crypto miners due to its access to power and data center infrastructure, hosting around 10 mining companies by 2018.

HIVE pivot to AI

• ▪HIVE Digital Technologies began scaling down Bitcoin mining at its Boden facility in March 2026 and is retrofitting the site into a liquid-cooled high-performance computing data center for AI workloads.
• ▪HIVE Digital Technologies recognized an $84.7 million non-cash provision linked to its Swedish VAT disputes in August 2026.

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