COMTAX
COMTAX is a Swedish international tax software suite that calculates cross-border corporate tax liability on dividends, interest, royalties and fees across 125+ jurisdictions, combining a treaty-rate database with transfer pricing, DAC6 and BEPS modules.
What is COMTAX?
COMTAX is an international corporate tax platform published by Comtax AB, a Swedish company based at Berga Allé 3 in Helsingborg. The vendor presents it as one unified tax intelligence platform and claims to be the only company worldwide offering a tax management software suite built specifically for international tax professionals. It has been trading under the COMTAX brand, by its own account, since 1985.
The heart of the product is a calculation engine for cross-border payments. Given a source company and an ultimate recipient, directly or through intermediate companies, it displays the international tax consequences of repatriating dividends, interest, royalties or fees, and the COMTAX System returns the thirty best results in descending order. Eight payment types are covered: dividends, interest on intercompany loans and from financial institutions, royalties on trademarks, patents and scientific copyright, and management and technical service fees. What sets the engine apart, according to the vendor, is that it works on treaty-reduced effective tax rates rather than headline rates, drawn from a continuously maintained database covering corporate income tax, capital gains tax on share sales and withholding taxes for more than 125 jurisdictions.
Around that engine sit ten named modules: the COMTAX System itself, Tax Navigator, Ratefinder, the Capital Gains Module, the TP Tool, the Tax Guide, the DAC6 Module, the Tax Calendar, the Anti-Avoidance and BEPS Trackers, and the Database. Each can be licensed on its own, and a Modular System allows the number of users, the jurisdictions, the payment types and the licence itself to be customised.
Two delivery modes exist. The COMTAX System is a secure Windows desktop application, while COMTAX Tax Navigator is the cloud version of the same engine, reached through a login page on a dedicated subdomain. Users can change tax rates in real time for what-if analysis, add, remove or rename countries to model several entities in one jurisdiction, and build an ownership structure into the calculation for dividend payments.
The database is maintained continuously by in-house tax lawyers working from the Swedish office with an international partner network. COMTAX describes its approach as combining human and artificial intelligence rather than replacing the former with the latter.
What it does
- Calculate corporate tax liability on cross-border repatriation across 125+ tax jurisdictions
- Compare up to 30 transaction routes ranked in descending order of outcome
- Apply treaty-reduced effective rates to eight kinds of cross-border payment
- Simulate capital gains tax on the cross-border sale of shares
- Document transfer pricing positions on related-party transactions
- Track anti-avoidance, CFC, GAAR, thin capitalisation and BEPS measures country by country
- Monitor DAC6 disclosure duties and international filing deadlines with reminders
When to use COMTAX / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if COMTAX is the right fit.
When to use COMTAX
- In-house international tax teams at multinational enterprises modelling dividend, interest, royalty and fee repatriation
- Tax advisers and CPA firms that need defensible cross-border calculations during client meetings
- Transfer pricing analysts documenting related-party transactions and arm's length positions
- Corporate tax lawyers checking treaty-reduced withholding rates across several jurisdictions at once
- Group treasury and financial reporting managers assessing the tax cost of intercompany cash flows
When not to use COMTAX
- Individuals or households looking for personal income tax filing software
- Companies that need domestic-only tax compliance, since the whole scope is cross-border
- Teams that require a public price list or self-service sign-up, because every plan is quoted on request
- Engineering teams wanting to embed tax logic through an API, as no API or developer documentation exists
- Users who work exclusively on mobile, since there is no iOS or Android application
How to use COMTAX
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Request a demonstration through the contact form, the only entry point offered by every call to action on the site
- Discuss scope with a COMTAX specialist: jurisdictions, payment types, number of users and licence length
- Ask about the free trial, which the vendor offers to qualifying organisations
- Choose between the cloud edition (Tax Navigator) and the secure Windows desktop edition (COMTAX System)
- Select the modules you need, or a fully custom Modular System
- For the desktop edition, install the COMTAX package, which bundles Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
- For the cloud edition, sign in with the credentials issued for the Tax Navigator platform
- Attend the included training, tailored on request and delivered on site or online, with no prior experience required
- Build a scenario: source and residence jurisdictions, intermediate entities, payment type and ownership structure
- Read the ranked results, adjust rates for what-if analysis, then print or export to PDF, Excel or CSV
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unusual depth on a narrow scope: 125+ jurisdictions, eight payment types and treaty-reduced effective rates rather than headline rates
- The engine ranks thirty transaction routes, which no spreadsheet can do without being rebuilt each time
- Database maintained continuously by in-house international tax lawyers, not by a generalist content team
- Two delivery modes, a secure Windows desktop edition and a cloud edition, from the same engine
- Genuinely modular: ten modules can be licensed separately, and a Modular System allows a bespoke perimeter
- Training and support are part of the delivered product, announced as 24/7 and provided by in-house staff
- Four decades of market presence claimed, with one named reference from a large industrial group
Cons
- No public pricing: all twelve offers on the pricing page read Ask price
- No API and no technical documentation, so the platform cannot be integrated into an existing finance system
- No terms and conditions are published, leaving duration, termination, service levels and applicable law invisible before contracting
- No security certification is claimed anywhere, and no security or trust page exists
- The privacy statement contains no retention period, no data subject rights section and no legal basis
- The published desktop requirements still list Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007
- Very small publisher: one employee declared in the Swedish register for 2024, for a database covering 125+ jurisdictions
Pricing & Plans
COMTAX publishes no price. All twelve offers listed on the pricing page carry the mention Ask price followed by a demonstration request, and no amount or currency appears anywhere on the site. There is no permanent free plan: every listed offer is a paid one. A free trial is available, but the vendor restricts it to qualifying organisations and publishes neither its duration nor its conditions. Commercially the model is a licence agreement whose length the customer chooses, with standard tiers covering five users and 24/7 support included. Any figure must therefore be obtained from the vendor directly.
- COMTAX Tax Navigator — Ask price — cloud edition
- five users
- 125+ jurisdictions
- eight payment types
- editable rates
- customisable settings
- TP Tool
- Capital Gains Module
- COMTAX System — Ask price — flagged Most Popular
- secure Windows desktop edition with high-level IT protection
- same perimeter as Tax Navigator plus ownership structures
- COMTAX Modular System — Ask price — custom users
- custom jurisdictions
- custom payment types
- custom settings
- custom licensing
- 24/7 support
- tax system
- rates
- deductibility
- other taxes
- double taxation relief
- anti-avoidance
- losses
- treaties
- COMTAX DAC6 Module — Ask price — EU countries and the United Kingdom
- detailed description of DAC6 rules and guidance
- local legislation included
- COMTAX Tax Calendar — Ask price — G20 countries
- CbC reporting deadlines
- local and master file deadlines
- non-BEPS deadlines
- deadline alarms
- COMTAX TP Tool — Ask price — analysis of cross-border related-party transactions
- COMTAX Anti-Avoidance and BEPS Trackers — Ask price
- COMTAX Ratefinder
- COMTAX Capital Gains Module and COMTAX Database — Ask price
- each listed separately on the same page
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how COMTAX handles your data.
GDPR overview
COMTAX AB is established in Sweden and publishes a document titled COMTAX AB Privacy Statement (GDPR), referring to the Regulation entering into force on 25 May 2018. It describes the categories of personal data collected, the two purposes of processing, and the four named third parties with which data may be shared, and it confirms that data is not sold. Beyond that, the implementation level is thin and it should be stated plainly. The document names no legal basis for processing, contains no data subject rights section (no access, rectification, erasure, portability or objection), sets no retention period, designates no data protection officer, and documents no transfer outside the EU. No data processing agreement and no security page exist on the site. The company never claims GDPR compliance in so many words.
Who owns the data?
COMTAX publishes no terms and conditions, so no contractual clause states who owns the data entered into calculations. The only document available is the COMTAX AB Privacy Statement (GDPR), which covers personal data rather than user content. It says COMTAX AB collects names, contact details, communication records, passwords and product keys, device and usage data, and error reports, obtained directly, through telemetry, and from third parties including co-branding partners and public sources such as LinkedIn, Xing and Facebook. The statement declares that COMTAX does not sell data but may share it with named partners to uphold the licence agreement.
Reuse rights
No terms of use are published, so nothing on the site grants or restricts the customer's right to reuse what the platform produces. In practice the software is built around export: every major function of the COMTAX System carries a print and an export command, and the Tax Calendar exports to PDF, Excel and CSV, which indicates that calculation outputs are meant to be taken away and reused in client deliverables. On the vendor side, the privacy statement gives two declared purposes: operating and improving the products, including support and licence validity checks, and sending communications, including promotional ones by phone, email and post. COMTAX states it does not sell data but may share it with the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, Palantir System AB, TAXCEL and Ekonomiföretaget Baehring Dahl AB. The list is introduced by such as, so it is not exhaustive. Nothing anywhere on the site addresses the use of customer data to train AI models.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
COMTAX makes no statement about where customer data is hosted. No page collected on the site names a hosting country, a region, a data centre or a cloud provider, and there is no security page, trust centre or data processing agreement in which such a commitment could appear. Two elements bear on the question indirectly and should not be mistaken for a vendor declaration. First, the COMTAX System is a Windows desktop application installed on the customer's own machine and described as a secure desktop version with high-level IT protection, which means that for this edition the working data stays where the customer puts it. Second, the tax database itself is maintained by in-house experts based at the Swedish office. Neither statement covers the cloud edition, COMTAX Tax Navigator, for which no hosting jurisdiction is disclosed. Buyers with a data residency requirement will have to obtain this in writing from the vendor.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting COMTAX.
- The site claims 1985 throughout, while the legal entity Comtax AB was registered on 28 October 1998 and only took the Comtax trading name on 28 December 2000
- An abandoned template page remains online and listed in the sitemap: its calls to action point to a staging host and its comparison grid has empty cells, so nothing on it should be read as a product claim
- No terms and conditions are published, so duration, termination, service levels, applicable law and ownership of user content cannot be assessed before contracting
- The privacy statement dates its reference to 2018 and sets out no retention period, no legal basis and no data subject rights, which will not satisfy a demanding procurement review
- The registered address is a c/o arrangement at an accounting firm that also appears among the third parties receiving data, and the statutory seat in the register is a different city
- The list of third parties receiving data is introduced by such as, so it is not exhaustive and no dedicated subprocessor page exists
- Tax results are only as current as the underlying database: outputs should be checked against the vendor's stated update cycle before being used in a filing or an opinion
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for the cloud edition, moderate for the desktop one. Tax Navigator needs only credentials once the licence is signed, and the vendor advertises setup in seconds rather than days. The COMTAX System requires installing a package on a Windows machine, bundled with .NET Framework 3.5, alongside Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader. There is nothing to integrate: no API, no connector and no documented single sign-on. Training is included, delivered on site or online, and requires no prior experience of the systems. The real gate is commercial, since a demonstration and a licence agreement precede any deployment.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind COMTAX
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What does COMTAX actually calculate?
How much does COMTAX cost?
Is there a free trial or a free plan?
Is COMTAX a desktop or a cloud product?
What are the technical requirements for the desktop edition?
Does COMTAX offer an API?
Is COMTAX ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certified?
Who maintains the tax data and how often?
Who publishes COMTAX?
What languages does the platform support?
Should you pick COMTAX?
COMTAX is a narrow product that goes deep. It does not try to be a general finance assistant: it models the tax cost of moving money across borders, and it does so on treaty-reduced effective rates rather than headline ones, over more than 125 jurisdictions and eight payment types. For an in-house tax team or an adviser who regularly rebuilds the same spreadsheet, that is a real and specific gain, and the thirty ranked routes returned by the engine are something a spreadsheet does not offer.
The artificial intelligence claim should be read for what it is. The vendor describes a combination of human and artificial intelligence, and the substance of the product remains a continuously maintained tax database with a calculation engine on top, built and updated by tax lawyers. That is a strength rather than a weakness in this field, but it is not an autonomous reasoning tool.
The reservations are commercial and contractual rather than functional. No price is public, no terms and conditions exist on the site, no security certification is claimed, and the privacy statement carries neither a retention period nor a data subject rights section. Buyers with a procurement or security review to satisfy will have to obtain all of that from the vendor. The publisher is also very small, with a single employee declared in the Swedish register for 2024, which is worth weighing against a database that must track 125+ jurisdictions continuously.
The sensible route in is the free trial offered to qualifying organisations, followed by a scoped licence covering only the modules actually needed.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.