A Danish pension in Australia: what travels and what does not

Denmark pays its state pension to people living in Australia, under a social security agreement between the two countries, and Australia appears by name on the list Denmark publishes. Less well known is that the same agreement hands several amounts paid alongside the pension back to Danish law, which keeps them inside Europe.

Key Takeaways

• Australia is one of the countries borger.dk names as having a pension agreement with Denmark, so the general no-agreement rules do not apply to this corridor.
• A Danish or EU citizen may take the pension abroad after at least three years of residence in Denmark between age 15 and the award. A citizen of the country they move to needs three years of residence and one year of work in Denmark.
• Article 5 of the agreement lists the pension supplement, personal allowance, outside assistance allowance, constant attendance allowance and disability benefit as payable outside Denmark only under the Social Pensions Act, and says its own rights do not apply to rent assistance or pharmaceutical allowance.
• Australia is one of ten countries where Udbetaling Danmark exchanges data with the local pension authority and does not routinely issue a life certificate.
• Denmark's tax authority states that the source country may tax a social security pension under Article 18 of the tax agreement only where the recipient is a national of the paying country.

Australia is an agreement country, and that changes the test

borger.dk, the Danish citizen portal, sets out two routes to taking a Danish pension abroad, and picking the wrong one produces the wrong number of years.

The first is the agreement route, and your right depends partly on whether you are a Danish citizen or a citizen of the country you are moving to. As a Danish or EU citizen you may take your pension abroad if you lived at least three years in Denmark between the age of 15 and the award. Where you are instead a citizen of the destination country, Australia is on the list beside Canada, Chile, the Philippines, India, Israel, Morocco, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. For that group the test is three years of residence and at least one year of work in Denmark.

The second route is for countries with no agreement, and it is harder: thirty years of residence in Denmark before becoming a pensioner, or ten years, or a quarter of the time from age 15 to the award, in a continuous period running up to the pension.

The two Danish bodies state this differently. The Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment gives the export rule flatly at thirty years of residence between age 15 and pension age, with no agreement carve-out. This guide follows borger.dk, which is the page that names Australia.

The agreement covers the Danish Social Pensions Act and the Labour Market Supplementary Pension Act on one side, and the Australian age pension, disability support pension for severely disabled persons, and parenting payment for widowed persons on the other. Article 5 opens by stating that, subject to the other provisions of the agreement, benefits of one Party are also payable in the territory of the other.

The parts that stop at the border

The pension arrives, and what it converts to on the day is on the corridor rate page. Several things paid with it in Denmark do not arrive at all.

The English pension pages at lifeindenmark.borger.dk put the supplement rule plainly: if you move to a third country, the right to take the pension supplement with you lapses, and you must reapply on returning to an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the UK. From 1 January 2024 a narrow exception covers a supplement received because of a congenital or early-onset disability, and it reaches only those countries.

The elderly cheque, which those pages also call the supplementary pension benefit, works the same way: borger.dk says you may be entitled to it if you receive a Danish state pension and live in the EU or EEA, Switzerland or the UK.

The agreement is what makes this stick rather than an administrative quirk. Its Article 5 provides that the pensions supplement, personal allowance, outside assistance allowance, constant attendance allowance and disability benefit under the Social Pensions Act are payable to a national of a Party living outside Denmark only according to that Act. A separate paragraph says the rights under that Article do not apply to rent assistance or pharmaceutical allowance. The agreement carries the pension across and leaves the supplements behind.

The life certificate you probably do not have to send

Most guidance about a European pension paid abroad says the same thing: send an annual life certificate or the payments stop. For Denmark that is true in general, and not for Australia.

The general rule first. Udbetaling Danmark, the body that administers and pays Danish pensions, asks a pensioner living abroad to confirm each year that they are alive, on a leveattest, when it writes and asks. For 2026 it wanted the certificate back by 31 August. Someone without MitID, the Danish digital identity, gets the letter by post and has a witness or a public authority sign it too. If the confirmation does not come, borger.dk says Udbetaling Danmark can stop paying under the pension act, and that a late confirmation restores payment only from the first of the month after the answer arrives.

Then the exception, in borger.dk's own words: if you live in one of the countries it lists you do not, as a rule, receive a life certificate at all, because Udbetaling Danmark exchanges information with the pension authorities there. The list is Australia, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and Germany. In one of them, you complete a certificate only if asked.

ATP states its own requirement without a country carve-out: it sends life certificates each May, wants them back by 31 August, and stops paying if one does not arrive. borger.dk says Udbetaling Danmark International Pension passes a completed leveattest to ATP Livslang Pension, Arbejdsmarkedets Erhvervssikring and Udbetaling Danmark Tjenestemandspension where you receive benefits from one or more of them, so it is filled in once. Neither page says what an ATP recipient in Australia does, and it is worth asking rather than assuming.

Getting ATP started, and lodging the claim from here

ATP Livslang Pension, the labour-market supplementary pension, is inside the agreement's scope alongside the Social Pensions Act, and ATP will pay it to a Danish or a foreign account. It does not begin on its own. ATP says you must ask for payment to start, and that it begins only at Danish state pension age.

The agreement removes two frictions. A benefit payable by virtue of it is paid without deduction for government administrative fees and charges for processing and paying it. And for the purposes of assessing entitlement, a claim, notice or appeal may be lodged with the other country's institution, with the date of lodgement there treated as the date it reached the first.

Who taxes it

Two layers decide this. Danish domestic law creates the charge. The Danish tax agency states that a person living outside Denmark is subject to limited tax liability on their pension payments, at an average rate because they belong to no Danish municipality. Its guidance places folkepension under section 2(1)(11) of the withholding tax act.

The tax agreement between the two countries, which is a different instrument from the social security agreement above, then decides who keeps the tax. The Danish tax authority's guidance on it says its Article 18 departs from the OECD model convention. Private pensions, annuities included, may be taxed only in the country of residence. The source country may tax public pensions from former public service, and pensions under its own social security legislation. Then comes the condition that decides many cases: the source country has that right only where the recipient is an individual who is a national of the country the payments come from. That tax agreement was signed on 1 April 1981, entered into force on 27 October 1981 and has had effect since 1 January 1982.

Which applies turns on nationality and on the kind of scheme, and it is one for a registered tax agent.

Where to look next

• Receiving money from Denmark - the live rate page.
• How international transfers work - the route a payment takes to an Australian account.
• Understanding transfer fees - what moving the money costs.
• How to find an accountant - checking a tax agent is registered, which matters when two countries both claim it.
• AUD to DKK - the convert page for this pair.

Sources

• Vil du have din folke-, foertids- eller seniorpension med til udlandet, borger.dk - the agreement-country list including Australia, the three-year residence test, the added year of work, and the branch where no agreement exists.
• Naar du faar folke-, foertids- eller seniorpension i udlandet, borger.dk - the annual life certificate, the 31 August 2026 deadline, the power to stop payment and the restart from the first of the following month, the ten countries where none is issued, the bodies the certificate is passed to, and the elderly cheque conditions.
• Betingelser for folkepension, Styrelsen for Arbejdsmarked og Rekruttering - updated 30 August 2024, and the thirty-year export rule stated with no agreement carve-out beside it.
• Danish pensions if you move abroad, skat.dk - limited tax liability on the payments, at an average rate because the recipient belongs to no Danish municipality.
• Pensioner, Den juridiske vejledning C.F.3.1.10, Skattestyrelsen - version 3.17 of 31 July 2026, placing folkepension under section 2(1)(11) of the withholding tax act.
• Danish state pension when you live abroad, lifeindenmark.borger.dk - updated 14 August 2026, the lapse of the pension supplement on a move to a third country, and the disability exception.
• Agreement between Australia and the Kingdom of Denmark on Social Security, Schedule 12 to the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999 - the scope on both sides, Article 5 on benefits abroad, the supplements returned to the Social Pensions Act, the exclusions, and the lodgement rules.
• ATP Livslang Pension i udlandet, borger.dk - payment to a Danish or foreign account, the requirement to ask for it to start, and the annual confirmation due by 31 August.
• Australien, gennemgang af DBO'en, Den juridiske vejledning C.F.9.2.1.10.2, Skattestyrelsen - Article 18 departing from the OECD model convention, the source country's right over social security pensions, the nationality condition on it, and the dates.

General information about the Danish state pension and its supplements as they reach a person living in Australia. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.