Coronavirus – package of measures: Employer and a-melding
See Coronavirus – package of measures for updated information.
The government will introduce a package of measures to handle the economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak.
Employer and a-melding
Enforcement fines in the A-ordning scheme are temporarily stopped, starting with the a-melding due for submission on 5 March.
The deadline for reporting the A-melding will still be the fifth of each month. If the fifth is a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the deadline is the next working day.
Remember that it's important to submit the A-melding – among other things, the information is used to process claims for sickness benefit and unemployment benefits from NAV.
Employer's national insurance contributions
On 19 March, it was proposed a 4 percent reduction of the employer's national insurance contribution for a period of 2 months.
The a-melding
Employers should not make any changes when they report employer's national insurance contribution in the a-melding. Continue to report with the regular rates. If you already submitted the a-melding for March, you do not have to do anything either.The Norwegian Tax Administration is looking into how this is to be done.
On 20 March, it was proposed to extend the deadline for the second period payment of employer's national insurance contributions from 15 March to 15 August 2020. NOTE: We'll continue to update this information.
Financial activity tax
On 20 March, it was proposed to extend the deadline for the second period payment of financial activity tax on surpluses from 15 March to 15 August 2020. NOTE: We'll continue to update this information.
Employer and a-melding
Enforcement fines
The deadline for reporting the a-melding is the fifth of each month. If the fifth is a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the deadline is the next working day.
Remember that it’s important to submit the a-melding – the information is, among other things, used to process claims for sickness benefit and unemployment benefits from NAV.
Enforcement fines in the a-ordning scheme were temporarily suspended for a-meldings with submission deadlines on 5 March, 6 April, 5 May, 5 June, 6 July, 5 August, 7 September, and 5 October 2020.
With regards to the a-meldings for October with a submission deadline on 5 November 2020, an enforcement fine could be imposed if the a-melding was not submitted within the deadline or contained errors.
Employer’s national insurance contributions
Refund of employer’s national insurance contributions for 2021
The right to sickness benefit for employees subject to travel restrictions (in Norwegian only) due to the COVID-19 pandemic was introduced on 16 April 2021. The right to sickness benefit applies from 29 January 2021 and for as long as travel restrictions continue to exist for work-related travel to Norway. The employer must advance the sickness benefit.
Employers do not have to pay national insurance contributions on sickness benefit that they have advanced to their employees. The exemption applies for the whole period during which the employer receives refunds for the prepaid sickness benefit.
On 20 March 2020, the rules for being laid off were changed. Employers were no longer obliged to cover the first 18 days of salary for employees who had been laid off. Instead, NAV granted a temporary salary compensation to employees who were laid off. If the employer advanced this salary compensation, and then received a refund from NAV, they did not have to pay employer’s national insurance contributions for this.
The employer can get a refund for salary paid in the benefit period for lay-off periods that started before 20 April 2020. The refund scheme does not apply to lay-off periods that started on 20 April 2020 or later.
Second period (March-April)
The deadline for the second payment period of employer’s national insurance contributions was postponed from 15 May to 17 August 2020.
Third period (May-June)
The employer’s national insurance contributions are reduced by four percentage points for the months of May and June 2020.
Employers should not change the way they report their employer’s national insurance contributions in the a-melding. Continue to report the basis for the employer’s national insurance contributions as usual and calculate the employer’s national insurance contributions according to normal rates.
The Tax Administration calculates the reduced employer’s national insurance contributions amount, using the employer’s national insurance contributions reported by the employer in the a-melding for May and June (third payment period), and send out claims to the employers before the deadline of the third payment period. The deadline for the third payment period is postponed to 15 October 2020. Read more about reduced employer’s national insurance contributions for the third payment period.
NOTE! Interest on overdue payments will only start to accrue if the claim is not paid by 15 October 2020.
Fourth period (July-August)
The employer's national insurance contributions for the fourth period are calculated according to normal rates. The deadline for paying employer’s national insurance contributions for the fourth payment period (July and August) remains unchanged and payment is due 15 September 2020.
Refunds (repayment)
Overpaid employer's national insurance contributions for the third period are refunded as long as a bank account number has been registered.
Any overpayment for the second period 2020 will be used to cover possible outstanding payment for the third. Contact your Tax Collection Office if you do not want this type of arrangement. You should also contact your Tax Collection Office if you would like a refund of all the employer's national insurance contributions paid by you for the third period 2020. In this case, payment for the third period must be by the deadline 15 October 2020.
Exemption from information and withholding tax duties for foreign employers with employees working from home in Norway
Many Norwegian employees working for foreign employers have temporarily returned to Norway during the pandemic or remained in Norway after a planned visit. Many of these employees work from home in Norway because of the Covid-19 pandemic, instead of working at their permanent place of work abroad.
For foreign employers with employees working from home in Norway due to Covid-19, there are exemptions from the duties to
- provide salary information pursuant to the Tax Administration Act
- deduct withholding tax pursuant to the Tax Payment Act
For 2021: For foreign employers with employees working from home offices in Norway due to Covid-19, there is an extension of the temporary provision that gives an exemption from the duty to provide salary information and deduct withholding tax.
For 2020: Temporary regulation (Lovdata) (in Norwegian only)
The exemption covers employers who are not resident in Norway and who, under normal circumstances, do not have any activities in Norway.
The exemption is of limited duration and is valid from 13 March 2020 to the end of the 2021 income year.
Some Norwegian employees are members of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme while they are working abroad. When an employee works in a country within the EEA (and Switzerland) or any other country with a national insurance agreement with Norway, the foreign employer has a duty to pay national insurance contributions to Norway pursuant to section 23-4a (of the National Insurance Act ).
In the temporary provision, the Ministry of Finance did not give an exemption from the duty to provide information for the assessment of employer’s national insurance contributions pursuant to section 23-4a of the National Insurance Act. Enterprises subject to this duty still have a duty to provide such information.
The government decided to establish a compensation scheme for employers in zone V (target zone) and on Svalbard, where the rate for calculating the employer’s national insurance contributions is zero. A subsidy of 4 percent of the basis for employer’s national insurance contributions for the third period 2020 (May-June) was granted.
This subsidy was calculated using the basis for the employer’s national insurance contributions reported in the a-melding. The scheme is managed by the Tax Administration. These subsidy payments can only be made if the Tax Administration has the recipient’s account number. The deadline for paying the subsidy was 1 September (2020). Read more about the compensation scheme in the target zone.
The deadline for the second period payment of financial activity tax on salaries was extended from 15 May to 17 August 2020.
The deadline for paying withholding tax for the second period was not extended. The deadline was 15 May 2020.