Foreign businesses that establish business activity in Norway without having a place of business or place of residence in Norway shall be registered through a representative, see the Value Added Tax Act section 10 third paragraph and the Ministry of Finance Regulations of 31 March 1977 (no. 71). When registered through a representative, the foreign national has the same rights and obligations as follow from normal registration in the VAT Register. The representative must have a place of residence or a place of business in Norway. Both the foreign business and the representative must sign the “Coordinated Registration Notification” part 2, (see 10 below).
Foreign businesses must keep accounts of their business activity in Norway. The representative must also keep complete VAT accounts of the foreign business’s turnover in Norway, both purchases and sales.
Sales documents for the foreign business’s turnover in Norway shall be sent via the representative. The representative must add his/her own name and address to the sales document and the business’s organisation number followed by the letters MVA and specify the VAT (output VAT) on the transaction. At least three copies of the sales document must be produced, one of which shall be retained by the representative.
Both the foreign business and its representative are responsible for VAT being calculated and paid.