Norway VAT return: registration to reconciliation

Figures are for tax year 2026 and guidance was retrieved on 24 September 2026. This Guide is for an ordinary business registered in Norway’s VAT Register. It covers registration, classification control, input-VAT deduction limits, return preparation, payment and evidence. It does not decide a transaction’s place of supply, a zero-rate/exemption provision, partial deduction, joint registration, VAT compensation, VOEC, customs duty or a foreign-business refund.

Rates, threshold and annual-period figures

Item	Current published figure	Use	Source
Registration threshold	Taxable sales and withdrawals exceeding NOK 50,000, excluding VAT, in any 12-month period	Registration is required once the limit has been exceeded, not when it is reached. Only VAT-able turnover counts.	Registration and VAT Act § 2-1
Registration threshold, charitable and non-profit organisations	NOK 140,000 excluding VAT	Use instead of NOK 50,000 only for charitable and non-profit institutions and organisations.	Registration
Registration threshold, tickets to sporting events	NOK 3 million	Applies to sales of the right to attend sporting events; the two top men’s football divisions and the top men’s ice hockey division use the ordinary limit.	VAT Act § 2-1
Normal VAT rate	25%	Use only after confirming normal-rated Norwegian treatment.	Rates
Reduced rate: foodstuffs, water and wastewater	15%	Foodstuffs sold as part of a serving (restaurant/catering) service are charged at 25%, not 15%. Medicines, tobacco, alcoholic drinks and water from waterworks are not foodstuffs (water from waterworks is still 15%, under the separate water and wastewater rate).	Rates and VAT Act § 5-2
Reduced rate: passenger transport, accommodation and listed admissions	12%	Passenger transport, accommodation (letting of rooms), public broadcasting, and entry to cinemas, sporting events, amusement parks and activity centres.	Rates
Cash-payment rule	NOK 10,000	A cost paid in cash of NOK 10,000 or more gives no deduction for the expense or its input VAT. Instalments of one purchase are added together.	Cash purchases
Non-registered foreign-service route	quarterly VAT basis at least NOK 2,000	Apply only after the remotely-deliverable-service conditions are met; use the reverse-tax-liability return. Below NOK 2,000 in the quarter there is no reporting and payment obligation.	Foreign services
Ordinary two-month return and payment deadlines	10 April; 10 June; 31 August; 10 October; 10 December; 10 February	The payment deadline is the same as the filing deadline; check the current calendar where a date falls on a non-working day.	Statutory deadline guidance (Norwegian)
Annual small-enterprise cap	NOK 1 million excluding VAT	Application route only: taxable supplies and withdrawals in the calendar year must not exceed the cap, the business must have been registered for at least 12 months, and prior returns and payments must have been on time.	Annual route
Annual filing deadlines	10 March (approved small enterprises); 10 April (agriculture, forestry, reindeer husbandry, fishing and other primary industry)	Primary industry must file annually whatever its turnover; the NOK 1 million cap does not apply to it.	Annual route
Primary-industry other VATable revenue notice	more than NOK 30,000	A primary-industry business with other VATable revenue of more than NOK 30,000 must tell Skatteetaten.	Annual route

Official sources and exact locators are in the evidence ledger. A rate table supplies examples, not a legal classification for every supply.

The method, step by step

1. Confirm entity, period and authority. Record the organisation number, VAT registration effective date, settlement period, prior return and the person preparing the return. Access to complete a return is different from authority to submit it. To complete and submit, the person needs the Altinn access package "Value added tax" or "Accountant with signing rights". "Auditor in charge", "Assistant auditor" and "Accountant without signing rights" can complete the return but not submit it. The older Altinn II roles (for example limited signing rights, or a NUF contact person) work only until 31 December 2026; from 1 January 2027 only the correct access package gives access. VAT return access
2. Test registration and retain the transition evidence. Maintain a rolling 12-month schedule of taxable sales and withdrawals, excluding VAT, and exclude exempt turnover. Registration is required once the total has exceeded NOK 50,000 (NOK 140,000 for a charitable or non-profit organisation). The business cannot charge VAT on invoices until registration has been approved. After registration, the sale that took turnover over the limit must be invoiced with VAT; if that invoice was issued before registration, issue a credit invoice without VAT and a new invoice with VAT rather than adding VAT informally. Late registration makes interest accrue on the VAT that should have been paid for the earlier periods and can lead to additional tax, and the missed returns must be filed as soon as possible. Once registered, the business may claim input VAT on purchases intended for use in the business going back three years, keeping the receipts. Pre-registration is possible before the limit is reached in two cases: documented start-up purchases subject to VAT of at least NOK 250,000, with more than 4 months expected before the limit is reached; the purchases must be intended for use in the enterprise and turnover must be expected to exceed the limit after the four months (Skatteetaten often asks for a budget); if the business does not perform as expected, the VAT refunded must be paid back; or where turnover will reach the limit within 3 weeks. Registration and registration transition
3. Classify each sale before applying a rate. Retain contract/order, invoice, supplier/customer identity and location, description, date, VAT-exclusive amount, and the rule supporting taxable, zero-rated, exempt or outside-scope treatment. Food sold as part of a serving service (restaurant, café, catering) is 25%, not the 15% food rate. Zero-rated supplies count toward registration and are reported; exempt supplies have a different deduction consequence. Do not merge both into a generic zero-percent ledger code. Rates, VAT Act § 5-2 and zero-rating/exemption
4. Test input VAT line by line. Record supplier invoice, business use, VAT amount, deduction conclusion and any mixed-use allocation. A registered business generally deducts input VAT paid on business purchases, subject to the actual use and the following statutory bars, which apply even when the cost is wholly for the business:
   • No deduction (VAT Act § 8-3) for input VAT on: serving (restaurant meals, catering) and the hire of function rooms in connection with serving; art and antiques, unless the buyer sells goods of the same kind; food for, and benefits in kind to, the owner, management, employees and pensioners; representation (entertaining business contacts); gifts, and goods and services handed out for advertising, unless the value is insignificant; and building, maintaining, renting and running real property that meets housing or welfare needs, including its furniture and equipment. Building and maintaining a staff canteen, including its loose furniture, remains deductible. Rare exceptions exist (art for use in a museum-type business under § 5-9, gifts of goods exported for use outside the VAT area, and goods for aircraft in foreign traffic or for vessels of at least 15 metres in foreign traffic); refer these.
   • No deduction for passenger cars (VAT Act § 8-4): input VAT on acquiring, running and maintaining a passenger vehicle is not deductible, except for a car held as stock for sale, a rental car in a professional car-rental business, or a car used to carry passengers for payment in a passenger-transport business. Whether a particular vehicle is a "passenger vehicle" depends on its registration class; if unclear, refer.
   • Cash payments: a cost paid in cash of NOK 10,000 or more gives no deduction for the expense or its input VAT; instalments of one purchase are added together. Retain electronic-payment evidence. Reconcile every claimed line to invoice/import evidence. Output/input VAT, VAT Act § 8-3, VAT Act § 8-4 and cash purchases
5. Treat imports separately. Norway is not a member of the EU, so EU intra-community rules do not apply: there are no intra-community acquisitions or zero-rated intra-EU supplies, and an EU VAT-number (VIES) check does not change Norwegian treatment. Goods bought from a supplier in an EU country are imports like goods from any other country, with a customs declaration. Norway not an EU member A VAT-registered business calculates import VAT itself in the VAT return for all goods it imports, including goods for which it has no deduction right. A business that is not VAT-registered instead pays import VAT to Norwegian Customs or to its shipping agent. Do not calculate import VAT from a purchase invoice alone. Check that declaration information on value, transport costs and insurance matches supplier/forwarder evidence. Use the confirmed customs-declaration base: Skatteetaten’s published method adds statistical value to customs duty and other taxes, then applies the supported VAT rate. The purchase invoice date controls accounting-period posting; Norwegian Customs’ shipping date controls the VAT-return period for import VAT. Report on the import codes: 81 (deductible, high rate), 82 (no deduction, high rate), 83 (deductible, medium rate), 84 (no deduction, medium rate) and 85 (zero rate). Deduction on imports follows the same rules as domestic purchases, including the bars in step 4. Imported goods
6. Test foreign services before reverse charging. This is not a goods-import rule. All of these must hold: the buyer is a business or public-sector body with a head office, branch or other fixed place of business in Norway (or a foreign business with a Norwegian VAT representative); the service would be VAT-able if sold in Norway; and the service can be delivered remotely (for example advisory, accounting, electronic services or hire of labour). The scheme does not apply to private individuals, or to non-profit organisations and associations that do not carry on commercial activity. Work that must physically be done in Norway is not in this scheme; the foreign supplier must register. Services between a Norwegian and a foreign office of the same company are not purchases, but an external supplier’s service passed on from a foreign office to the Norwegian office is, unless VAT was calculated abroad and this is documented. Convert the price to NOK using Norwegian Customs’ exchange rate at the time of delivery. A registered buyer reports the self-assessed VAT as output VAT in the ordinary return with no lower threshold. A non-registered buyer uses the reverse-tax-liability VAT return only when that quarter’s VAT basis is at least NOK 2,000; retain the quarter calculation and pay/report through that route. A reverse charge does not itself establish input recovery: deduction follows the ordinary rules in step 4. Services from abroad
7. Reconcile, file and pay. Calculate the ordinary net position as output VAT on sales + self-assessed VAT − eligible input VAT. Reconcile each element to the rate/classification schedule, invoices, customs declaration or foreign-service workpaper; investigate a negative outcome as a refund position rather than silently netting it away. Registered enterprises submit a return even with no VAT activity. Ordinary reporting is generally every other month, with filing and payment due on 10 April, 10 June, 31 August, 10 October, 10 December and 10 February; use the current Tax Administration calendar if the nominal date is a non-working day. An approved annual small enterprise files and pays by 10 March; primary industry by 10 April. An annual-period enterprise whose turnover exceeds NOK 1 million must apply to return to two-monthly reporting, and a business that leaves the annual route must report every other month for at least the next two years. Submit using the current service or a compatible accounting system only after the authorised submitter check, then pay from the Altinn payment information at the same deadline. A late return triggers enforcement fines, even for a period with no turnover, and interest accrues on late payment from the due date until paid. Ordinary deadline and payment guidance (Norwegian), return service, payment route and enforcement fines
8. Pay, retain and correct. Pay using the Altinn payment information at submission. Retain the submitted return, confirmation, KID/payment reference and bank evidence. For an ordinary current return error, preserve the original, calculate the corrected amounts from the reconciled records, then submit a new VAT return for the affected term through the logged-in return service or a compatible accounting system. The most recently submitted return applies; the correction must be submitted within three years of the original filing deadline. For an import declaration error, correct the declaration with the shipping agent or Norwegian Customs before relying on it in the return. Historic general and primary-industry periods before 1 January 2022, and reverse-charge or VAT-compensation periods before 1 January 2023, use the separately documented contact-form routes. Current ordinary correction method (Norwegian), import declaration corrections and historic correction routes

Ask the client first

• What is the entity’s registration effective date, settlement period, current Altinn access package and named authorised submitter?
• What is the rolling 12-month taxable-sales total, excluding VAT, and which invoices make it up? Is the entity a charitable or non-profit organisation (NOK 140,000 limit)?
• For each unusual sale, what was supplied, where, to whom and under which rate/zero/exemption provision? Is any food sold as part of a serving service?
• Are there imported goods, customs declarations and shipping dates that differ from invoice dates?
• Are there services bought from abroad, Svalbard or Jan Mayen, and what establishes buyer connection, service type and place of supply?
• Are there restaurant or catering bills, entertainment of business contacts, gifts or promotional items, staff food or benefits, art, staff housing or holiday property, or passenger-car costs? Their input VAT is barred unless an exception applies.
• Is any input used for exempt, private or mixed activity, or paid in cash at NOK 10,000 or more?
• Does the enterprise seek an annual small-enterprise period? Confirm calendar-year taxable supplies and withdrawals are no more than NOK 1 million excluding VAT, at least 12 months’ VAT registration, timely prior returns/payments, the 10 December–1 February application window and actual approval.

Worked preparation cases

The five cases below are illustrative only. Amounts in equations are assumed NOK amounts and are intentionally shown as bare decimal numerals. They show arithmetic and workflow; they do not decide the rate, deduction or classification of an actual transaction.

1. Threshold-crossing invoice

Facts. The rolling taxable-sales schedule totals 48000 excluding VAT. A further normal-rated sale is 5000 excluding VAT. Registration follows the threshold crossing.

Method and result. The schedule becomes 48000 + 5000 = 53000, which exceeds the limit, so registration is required. After registration, preserve the registration confirmation and issue the credit/replacement invoice sequence if the 5000 invoice was originally issued without VAT. At the published 25% normal rate, output VAT is 5000 × 25 ÷ 100 = 1250 and the replacement invoice total is 5000 + 1250 = 6250. This case assumes the normal-rate classification. Registration transition and rates

2. Import: confirmed customs base and different dates

Facts. A VAT-registered business receives a purchase invoice dated 28 February; Norwegian Customs’ shipping date is 3 March. The confirmed customs declaration has statistical value 3000 and customs duty/other taxes 1700; the business has a supported 25% rate and full deduction in this example.

Method and result. Post the purchase using the invoice date, but report import VAT in the period containing the 3 March shipping date. The confirmed import base is 3000 + 1700 = 4700; import VAT is 4700 × 25 ÷ 100 = 1175. Report both the self-assessed import output VAT and the supported input side. The customs declaration, not this example, controls the real base and any deduction restriction. Imported goods

3. Completion access without submission authority

Facts. A bookkeeper has the "Accountant without signing rights" access package and can complete the VAT return in Altinn, but cannot submit it.

Method and result. Complete and reconcile the draft, but stop before submission. A person with the "Value added tax" or "Accountant with signing rights" access package must submit. Save the access check with the return workpaper. VAT-return access

4. Ordinary-return correction

Facts. A submitted ordinary return omitted 1000 of output VAT. Reconciled records support the correction and the original filing deadline was less than three years ago.

Method and result. Preserve the submitted return and correction workpaper. Recalculate the affected term and submit a new return through the logged-in service or a compatible accounting system. The latest return applies. Recompute the whole payment/refund position; 1000 is the assumed omitted output amount, not a standalone payment instruction. Current ordinary correction method (Norwegian)

5. Client lunch and a company passenger car

Facts. A registered consultancy pays a restaurant bill for a lunch with a client: 2000 excluding VAT plus 500 VAT at 25%. It also receives a workshop invoice for servicing the managing director’s passenger car, used only for the business. The business does not sell, rent out or carry passengers for payment with cars.

Method and result. The restaurant bill is serving and representation, so none of the 500 input VAT is deductible, even though the lunch is for the business. The car servicing is running and maintenance of a passenger vehicle, so its input VAT is not deductible either. Book both costs gross. VAT Act § 8-3 and VAT Act § 8-4

When to refuse or refer

• The return needs a transaction-specific place-of-supply, exemption, zero-rating or partial-deduction conclusion.
• The matter concerns property adjustments, financial services, joint registration, VAT compensation, VOEC, customs duty or a foreign-business refund.
• It is unclear whether a vehicle is a passenger vehicle, whether a gift or promotional item is of insignificant value, or whether property serves housing or welfare needs.
• The business has no authorised Altinn submitter, has an estimated assessment, or needs an historic correction route not available in the live service.
• Customs/import evidence, foreign-service facts, supplier invoices or VAT-registration status is incomplete.

Sources

The exact captured official pages, locators and claim-level coverage are in quality-evidence.json and sources.json.