Tax Assistance

Tax Assistance guides and assists taxpayers who are or have been in a difficult life situation, so that they'll be able to protect their rights and fulfil their responsibilities to the Tax Administration.

Through guidance and assistance to the disadvantaged taxpayers, Tax Assistance shall contribute to ensuring that the basis for the assessment of taxes and duties is in accordance with the actual circumstances. This could, for example, be achieved through changes in previous tax assessments, or a mitigation of tax and duty claims.

In order to get help from Tax Assistance, you must show willingness to provide necessary documentation to support your case, and you must be able to prove a difficult life situation.

Who can get help?

Can get help

You can get help from Tax Assistance if you

  • have previous claims against you as a result of the Tax Administration assessing your taxes, even though the information clearly shows that this was not the actual situation
  • have not made an appeal within the deadline
  • are or have been in a difficult life situation

Your life situation may be considered difficult if extenuating circumstances result in you not being able to pay what you owe to the tax authorities.

Examples of this include:

  • You or a member of your close family have a serious illness
  • You have been to prison

The above list is not conclusive, and you’ll be required to prove your difficult life situation. Tax Assistance will consider your case to decide whether or not it falls within the scheme.

 

Cannot get help

As a general rule, you cannot get help from Tax Assistance if

  • you're currently self-employed
  • an audit has resulted in tax and duty claims
  • a discretionary assessment, as a consequence of submitted information, for example information from the a-melding, has resulted in tax and duty claims
  • you've received tax and duties assessments as a result of your own submitted information

 

 

Each case will be evaluated individually.

If you apply and we find that you're not covered by the scope of Tax Assistance’s services, we'll forward your case for normal case processing. 

If you're offered help through Tax Assistance, you'll receive personal follow-up and a point of contact. The goal is to find a solution in accordance with the regulations that can improve the situation and enable you to pay correct tax and meet your obligations to the Tax Administration. 

What you must do

If you believe you're entitled to help from Tax Assistance, send us a written enquiry.

The enquiry must include:

  • The reason why you have not submitted your tax return, income statement, VAT return, notification of a move or similar.
  • Documentation of income and expenses for the given income year(s).
  • You must also explain what your livelihood has been for the given income year(s).
  • You must also prove your difficult life situation. This could, for example, be documented by a medical certificate, residence certificate from an institution or similar.
  • If the original claim is based on business activities, the VAT return must be filled in for the given income year(s).

Log in to send your enquiry online.

Send an enquiry to the Tax Administration

You must select the topic “Others” when you fill in the form.

We’ll accept the following attachments:

  • forms completed online
  • photos of paper documents taken with a mobile phone/camera, or
  • a screenshot from a computer

If you cannot submit all your attachments online, you must send us your enquiry by post. That means it’ll take longer before you receive a reply to your application.

Send your enquiry to:
Skatteetaten
Postboks 9200 Grønland
0134 Oslo

Do you need help?

There are several ways to get help if you're struggling with your finances. Below are a few examples:

  • If you have other, large debts to other creditors than the Tax Administration, you can apply for debt settlement. Read more about debt settlement on the police’s website (in Norwegian only).
  • NAV can also offer financial advice and debt counselling.
  • A payment agreement can be an agreement where you get an extension on the payment deadline, where you can pay in instalments, or a combination of the two. As a rule, tax must be paid on time.
  • If you have tax debt that you over several years have been unable to pay, you can apply to have all or part of your tax debt deleted. This is called waiving of tax.
  • If you owe money to the public authorities, any overpaid tax can be used to cover these debts. This is called offsetting.
  • If you do not pay the tax you owe by the deadline, the Tax Administration is obliged to try to recover the claim. One of the methods used to recover the claim can be attachment of earnings, which means deducting money from your salary, pension or other remunerations.
  • If you do not pay your taxes and duties on time, we're obliged to consider other ways to recover the money you owe. Then we can hold attachment proceedings. This means that we examine what you own and place attachments on your assets.