As an employer, you are obliged to make withholding tax deductions

In Norway, all employees must pay tax as their salary is earned and paid out. As an employer, you are obliged to make withholding tax deductions before you pay your employees’ salaries.

The tax deduction account scheme is discontinued

From 2026 you must pay the withholding tax and attachment of earnings directly to the Tax Administration, no later than the first working day after the salary is paid. 

More about the changes for employers from 2026

Your obligations as an employer to deduct withholding tax can be summarised in six points:

  1. You must retrieve the employee’s tax deduction card electronically from the Tax Administration. If the Tax Administration notify you that an employee does not have a tax deduction card?
  2. You must calculate the basis for the calculation.
  3. You must apply the tax deduction card to the calculation basis in order to find the correct withholding tax to be deducted.
  4. You must ensure that tax deduction card information is updated for each payroll run.
  5. In connection with each payroll run, you must deduct withholding tax from the employee's gross salary, and then transfer the amount to the tax authorities. The deadline for payment of the prepayment is the first working day after salary payment from January 1, 2026.
  6. You must document the withholding tax to the employee.

Defer the due date for deductions


If you're unsure how much of the advance tax deductions you must pay to Norway when paying salaries, you can apply to defer the due date until the fifth day of the month following the salary payment. We can grant a deferred due date from the date of the decision until the end of 2027.

The scheme only applies to a small number of employers

The scheme applies to employers whose employees normally work in more than one country during a month and where the employer does not know how many days the employees work in the different countries when salaries are paid.

Most employers do not meet the requirements. You do not need to apply if:

  • you make salary payments in arrears
  • you can use work plans, shift schedules, or work rotas to determine the obligation to make advance tax deductions in Norway
  • the uncertainty concerns fewer than 10 percent of the employees for whom you report advance tax deductions in Norway. In these cases, we expect you to correct the advance tax deductions yourselves rather than us granting a general exemption.

When assessing applications, we consider the employer's payment history and any unpaid claims.

What the application must include

If you believe that your enterprise meets the requirements above, you must send us an application with supporting documents showing the uncertainty. The applicant must be authorised to represent the enterprise. We assess and process each application separately for each organisation number.

The application must include:

  • the organisation number of the enterprise
  • contact information for the person responsible for the application
  • an explanation of the grounds for the application
  • an estimate of the number of affected employees and their share of the total workforce
  • employee lists, project contracts, employment contracts, or supporting documents from the payroll system that substantiate the uncertainty

How to submit the application

  • Open Write to us
  • Tick the box for "Other questions" under "What would you like to write to us about? "
  • Write "Application for deferred due date for advance tax deductions" in the description of what the enquiry concerns.

Apply through a lawyer or adviser

You can submit the application through a lawyer, adviser, or other representative. If the representative is not a lawyer, auditor, or accountant, you must attach a written power of attorney from the enterprise applying.

Declarations or confirmations from a lawyer, auditor, or adviser can be included as supporting documents, but are not sufficient on their own. You must provide supporting documents showing that there is genuine uncertainty about the obligation to make advance tax deductions so that we can verify the information in the declaration.

Each enterprise must submit a separate application with its own information.

What do I do if an employee wants to deduct more tax than is shown on the tax deduction card?

The employee will not need a new tax deduction card. The employee can contact you as their employer/the payroll office, or alternatively NAV/their pension provider, and ask for  a higher tax deduction.

The Tax Payment Act (Chapter 5 Section 5-5 second paragraph) stipulates that employees must deduct more tax if the employees so requests.

Useful tools for calculating the correct amount of withholding tax and paying tax

  • Table-based deductions for tax deduction cards
    You will find an electronic version of the tax deduction tables here. The tax deduction tables show how much tax an employer must deduct if you have a tax deduction card that contains a table.