How do taxes in Norway work?

Hi I have worked in Norway and Denmark many times and no body will give you a straight answer I have tried .
All I know is that if your on about £400 a day your be lucky to take home £300 .
If you live in England your know what I mean by emergency tax they will take a large amount from you and you might get some back also there is a agreement between England and Norway so if you pay in Norway your agency should give you a tax receipt so You wont end paying twice .

So if you live in england or some were that has a agreement with Norway you wont have to pay in your home countrie .
Sorry I cant give you percentage but it will be a large amount this is why so many people dont want to work in Norway or Denmark because the rates on offer now are very low it may look good before Tax but take home pay is low.

My information may be out of date but you only have to look how many job offers are in Norway .

Cheers

Subman

If you are working thru an agency and they don’t take the tax off it will be up to you to declare it.

If it’s a one off job is it worth the hassle?

If you were working in Nigeria, or Qatar or Vietnam would you also be inquiring where to pay your tax? Most don’t, I know I don’t.

Subman,

you mean UK not England – the same applies to all countries within the UK, not just England (unless Scotland has a seperate tax agreement no-one has told me about!)

The tax in Norway is not based upon you earn X you pay Y% tax as the UK does. They have tax tables that vary depending on the amount you earn. If you work there all year % wise the amount of tax you pay is not too bad (last time I worked in norway for 6 month of the year it worked out at 28% tax.)

The problem is if you do say one 1 month trip a year, the % can be as high as 40% as James said. There is a recipricol tax agreement between the UK and Norway.

There are various allowances you can claim:-

something like NOK 3000 for each month you work there
15% standard deduction for being a foreigner
if you work onboard ships that are registered to work in Norway and carry out work which is not on their exclusion list (cant remember, stuff like construction, pipelay, surveys – think maintenance or repair is OK) and do this for >135 days a year, you can claim a 30% deduction up to a maximum of NOK70000 a year
you can also register to be exempt paying their National Insurance.

So you deduct the monthly allowance, the 15% deduction and the 30% deduction and whatever is left is taxed.

Note that if you work onboard a ship and are NOT carrying out work which is oil or gas related, you will pay your home countrys tax and not Norwegian (I have a letter confirming this from Norwegian tax authorities for onetime we were alongside Bergen not on contract or hire babysitting the ROV and didnt have to pay UK tax)

Your company SHOULD sort out your tax for you, unfortuinately most Agencies think its too much hassle and then says its up to you. Under the agreement, the individual is responsible, not the company so even if your company cocks it up its you they will chase.
If you are a UK resident and used to claiming the Foreign Earnings Deduction for Seafarers, obviously any work you do in Norway and pay Norwegian tax is moneyy you will not be getting back from the UK.

What happened to the member who works for a tax consultant, would be nice to hear from him for the latest info 🙂

Hi

something like NOK 3000 for each month you work there
15% standard deduction for being a foreigner
if you work onboard ships that are registered to work in Norway and carry out work which is not on their exclusion list (cant remember, stuff like construction, pipelay, surveys – think maintenance or repair is OK) and do this for >135 days a year, you can claim a 30% deduction up to a maximum of NOK70000 a year
you can also register to be exempt paying their National Insurance.

The ships registered that allow you to claim seamanns tax back are called NIS Registered Vessels.

The deduction Ray talks about is Sjømanns fradrag (seamanns tax) which you claim for if you have done 130 days or more on a NIS registered vessel. Problem is, if a company you are paying taxes too doesnt fill this in for you then you have to claim for it by yourself. AND its in Norwegian.

Everyone should get a form called Selvangivelse when paying taxes in Norway and when you recieve this form you claim for

1.Sjømanns fradrag
2.Utlanding (Foreigner) fradrag

Probably other crap you can claim for too but most importantly you claim for all this on the SELVANGIVELSE.

Should work out to be a good bit lower than 36% anyway providing you working on appropriate vessels and not rigs.

Thanks guys…
The only positive thing is that when you pay taxes in Norway you can claim back after a few years a pension, probably.

Probably?? You sure will have to look into more deeply because in many countries there is a w_i_d_e gap between paying taxes and paying national insurance contributions, the latter being the one that may pay a pension and that would most certainly be based on many years of contributions.

Unless you know what you are getting into, the safest (cheapest) bet is to avoid Norway. It can, and will most likely, open a whole can of worms that you wish you had not ventured anywhere near in the first instance. Be 100% sure that any company, or agency, will wash their hands of any tax liabilities you may accrue and will not hesitate in coughing up with all the job and your details to the Norwegian authorities should they so be asked.