Sweden CPD: 100 Verifiable Hours, or 120, Depending Who Asks

Sweden runs two CPD requirements on incompatible metrics. The regulator measures 100 verifiable hours over five years, checked when you apply to renew your authorisation. The professional body measures 120 hours over three years with a 20-hour annual floor. Neither converts cleanly into the other, and only one direction is safe.

There is also a structural oddity: the Swedish audit act contains no continuing-education provision at all.

The chain, and the gap in it

Three instruments, each handing the problem down:

• Revisorslag (2001:883) — the audit act. It imposes no CPD obligation. What it does supply is the thing the obligation hangs on: authorisation lasts five years, extendable in an individual case to at most six, plus the power to delegate further rules.
• Förordning (1995:665) om revisorer, section 6 — imposes the duty to undertake continuing education in order to maintain the knowledge and ability required, and attaches no number to it. That provision was last amended in 2009.
• Revisorsinspektionens föreskrifter (RIFS 2018:2), section 13 — decided 31 May 2018, in force 1 July 2018. This is where the figure finally appears.

So Sweden is a three-step delegation: the act sets the renewal cycle, the government regulation sets the duty, and the Inspectorate sets the number.

The regulator: 100 verifiable hours per five years

Section 13 requires auditors to undertake continuing education to the extent following from god revisorssed — good auditing practice — and specifies that over the five-year period immediately preceding an application for continued authorisation, it must comprise at least 100 verifiable hours.

Note what that is tied to. It is not a rolling or calendar measure; it is measured backwards from your renewal application. And four things follow from the way it is drafted:

• No annual minimum. You could in principle do nothing for four years.
• No ethics minimum.
• No annual declaration deadline. Evidence is produced on the Inspectorate’s request and with the renewal application.
• No retention period for CPD records. The regulation does carry a ten-year retention rule, but it covers other sections and does not reach section 13.

That last point is worth stating plainly because it is easy to assume the ten years applies. It does not.

The 2024 sustainability amendment

RIFS 2024:2, decided 4 September 2024 and in force 1 October 2024 with no transitional provisions, did two things. It amended section 13 so that the hours must fall within the Inspectorate’s defined subject areas, and allowed anti-money-laundering training to count.

More significantly, it inserted a new section 14 — reinstating a requirement that had been repealed in 2021. For an auditor who at the time of the renewal application is qualified to review sustainability reports, the training must also comprise 40 verifiable hours in the sustainability subject area, on top of the section 13 requirement. A pro-rata reduction is available where the qualification was held for only part of the five-year period.

So a sustainability-qualified Swedish auditor is looking at 140 verifiable hours across five years at renewal.

The professional body: 120 hours per three years

FAR’s ethical rules bind its members, and the relevant document is its continuing-education rule. Its requirements are materially stricter than the regulator’s:

• 120 hours per three-year period, minimum 20 per year
• At least 60 verifiable hours per three-year period, documented as to when the training took place and what it covered
• For auditors: at least 100 verifiable hours per five-year period within the regulator’s twenty subject areas, with proof submitted alongside the renewal application — mirroring the statutory rule
• Auditors licensed for financial companies: an additional 60 relevant hours per three years, of which 40 verifiable — a combined 180 hours per three years, 100 of them verifiable
• Auditors with sustainability authorisation: an additional 40 verifiable sustainability hours per five-year period
• Only effective training time counts — travel and meal breaks are excluded. Members must document both planned and completed training, and produce it at FAR quality control
• No reporting deadline and no retention period are stated

The one real ethics minimum in Sweden

Buried in the same rule is the only genuine ethics quota we found anywhere in the Swedish system: authorised tax advisers must attend a FAR-organised professional ethics course at least every fifth year, and it may count toward the ordinary three-year hours.

Note the shape of it — not a number of hours, but a named course at a stated frequency. Neither the act, the regulation nor the Inspectorate’s rules impose any ethics figure on auditors. Sweden is therefore consistent with the wider European picture, where explicit ethics quotas are rare; only Romania sets one for auditors.

Which way the metrics convert

This is the practical conclusion and it only works in one direction.

A member meeting FAR’s rule will comfortably exceed the regulator’s. 120 hours every three years, with 60 verifiable, generates far more than 100 verifiable hours across any five-year window.

The reverse is not true. An auditor who satisfies the regulator — 100 verifiable hours somewhere inside five years, with no annual floor — could easily breach FAR’s 20-hour annual minimum and its three-year total. Clearing your authorisation renewal does not mean you have met your membership obligation.

So if you are a FAR member, plan to FAR’s rule and treat the statutory requirement as automatically covered. If you are authorised but not a member, the regulator’s five-year test is the one that matters — and it gives you considerably more latitude about when.

Two things we are not stating

What changed in FAR’s 2026 amendment. The current version of the rule is marked as last amended by a 2026 instrument. We could not establish what that amendment altered or when it took effect, so nothing above is presented as new for 2026.

The figures for authorised accounting and payroll consultants. FAR sets continuing-education rules for those professions too — the non-audit side. We located the pages but did not extract the numbers. That is unknown, not zero, and it would be wrong to read this page as saying those professions have no requirement.

How Sweden compares

Sweden is the only regime in this group measured on a five-year cycle, because it is pinned to the authorisation renewal rather than to a calendar. Denmark uses fixed three-year blocks and lets auditors choose between 90 hours plus an evaluation or 120 flat — see our guide to Denmark’s two options. Belgium runs two professions on 120 hours over three calendar years with different machinery for each, covered in our guide to Belgium’s regimes and its December ESG deadline.

What all of them have in common is an EU directive that sets no number at all — see the EU Statutory Audit Directive.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do Swedish auditors need? The regulator requires at least 100 verifiable hours over the five years immediately preceding an application for continued authorisation. FAR requires 120 hours per three years of its members, with at least 20 a year and 60 verifiable.

Is there an annual minimum? Not under the regulator’s rules. FAR sets 20 hours a year for its members.

What about sustainability? An auditor qualified to review sustainability reports needs an additional 40 verifiable hours over the five years before application, with pro-rata relief if the qualification was held for only part of it.

Is there an ethics requirement? Not in hours. Authorised tax advisers must attend a FAR professional ethics course at least every fifth year.

How long must I keep records? No period is specified for CPD records. The regulation’s ten-year rule covers other provisions and does not reach the continuing-education section.

Verifiable hours, documented properly, with Learnsignal

Every Swedish figure that matters is a verifiable one, and FAR counts only effective training time. Our certificated courses record real duration alongside activity, date and subject area, which is exactly what a renewal application and a quality-control review ask for. The Inspectorate’s rules are published at Revisorsinspektionen.