Summer holidays, jazz, new drink driving rule and tax deadlines are among the changes and events coming up in Denmark this July.

Summer holidays begin

Most schools in Denmark break up for the summer on Friday June 27th, so the summer holidays arrive with the first week of July.

This obviously applies for schools and preschools, but also to a high degree for people working in the Nordic country.

Of the five standard weeks or (normally 25 days) of paid vacation covered by Denmark’s Holiday Act (Ferieloven), the “main holiday period” begins on May 1st and ends on September 30th. During this time, three weeks’ consecutive vacation may be taken out of the five weeks.

For those in full or part-time employment who are covered by the Danish holiday laws, many will take three weeks off in July, especially if they have children.    

This is why you are likely to hear Danish colleagues who work full time wishing each other a “good summer holiday” in late June as if it’s the end of the school term.

READ ALSO: Why do the Danes take such long summer holidays?

Copenhagen Jazz Festival 

The streets of Copenhagen will hum with the groovy sound of summer jazz as the latest edition of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival begins on July 4th and continues for ten days until July 13th.

The annual festival is unique in that it does not have a specific location, but is played out in parks, on squares and in bars (and, of course, jazz clubs) across the capital. The size of the venues ranges equally from intimate and spontaneous to major concert halls.

Over 1,200 concerts are scheduled to take place at 120 different locations and you can check out the programme on the event’s website.

Advertisement

Cheap summer rail travel

Denmark’s rail operator DSB has scrapped a popular summer travel pass, the Rejsepas, which it offered in recent years, but all is not lost if you’re on the lookout for a heavily discounted train trip this summer.

DSB’s limited availability Orange tickets, which offer heavily discounted rail travel across the country, have been given extended release for the summer, particularly in July.

Orange tickets are reduced-price tickets for set departure times, made available by DSB on a first-come, first-served basis.

A large batch of summer Orange tickets has already been released on the DSB website for travel between June 20th and August 3rd.

One million tickets in total have been made available, but you’ll have to move fast to get a departure at the time and date you want – despite the large number, they’ll probably still sell out quickly.

The tickets offer highly discounted travel between any two stations in Denmark for a maximum price of 99 kroner.

READ ALSO: How to save on rail travel in Denmark this summer

Update to Positive List

The Positive List is a list of professions for which immigration authorities can issue work permits because Denmark is experiencing a shortage of qualified professionals in those fields.

People who are offered a job included in the Positive List can apply for a Danish residence and work permit based on the Positive List Scheme. An educational background in the relevant field is required.

The Positive List Scheme is one of a number of business schemes used to grant work permits for non-EU and EEA nationals who are unable to move to Denmark under the EU’s right to free movement.

The list is updated twice a year, on January 1st and July 1st.

The updated lists can be viewed on the website of the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI).

Advertisement

Save money by clearing tax arrears

Some 800,000 taxpayers in Denmark are in the position of owing money to the country’s tax authority (Skattestyrelsen), which must be paid back by July 1st.

If you have to pay money back, you can save a certain amount by doing so in advance of the deadline on July 1st, which applies to the 2024 tax statements released in March.

This is because interest applied by the Danish Tax Authority on overdue tax switches to a higher rate from July 1st, with the higher rate being backdated across the year.

You can find a full explanation in our earlier article here.

Tax deadline for businesses

If you are a business owner in Denmark you must register your results for 2024 at the beginning of July.

For most companies, this means information can be submitted up to and including June 30th although for self-employed people and small companies, information submitted up to and including July 1st will be considered submitted on time

More information can be found on the Danish Tax Agency’s website.

Advertisement

Lower blood alcohol limit applies for new drivers

A new legal limit of 0.2 permille will apply during the first three years after obtaining a driving licence from July 1st. The current limit, 0.5 permille, will continue to apply to all other motorists.

The new limit effectively means zero tolerance for drink-driving among new drivers.

Denmark uses permille (promille) as the unit for blood alcohol content. For example, blood alcohol content of 1.2 permille equates to 0.12 percent or 0.12 grams of alcohol per 100 grams of blood, or 1.2 grams of alcohol per 1000 grams of blood.

Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen said in a June statement that the new 0.2 permille rule is “one less thing for new drivers to worry about.”

Danielsen does not support extending the lower limit to all drivers, telling broadcaster TV2 that “most people are perfectly capable of having a beer with lunch and driving home afterwards.” 

A recent Voxmeter poll on behalf of Danish news wire Ritzau showed backing for the zero-tolerance limit should it ever be extended, however. 

In Voxmeter’s survey, 48.2 percent said the legal blood alcohol limit for all drivers should be lowered to 0.2 permille, while 44.9 percent said it should stay at 0.5 permille. 6.9 percent answered “don’t know.”