Employer’s national insurance contributions

Brief information about employer’s national insurance contributions in the a-melding

As an employer, you have a responsibility to calculate and pay employer's national insurance contributions. Employer's national insurance contributions are based on the employees' gross salaries.

The rate you can use to calculate employer's national insurance contributions depends on:

• zone - which municipality the enterprise has its head office in
• calculation code - the type of business you run

There are seven different calculation codes:

• general industries
• health enterprises and parts of the public administration
• agriculture and forestry, fisheries etc.
• reporting of payroll withholding tax only
• PAYE for Svalbard (payroll deduction)
• sector-exempt activity
• road freight transport

In the a-melding, you must provide information on how you calculate employer's national insurance contributions and the amount that you must pay.

You must also indicate whether each individual salary payment and benefit is to be included in the basis for employer's national insurance contributions. See a more detailed description of this under each individual salary payment and benefit.

For more information, see general information on national insurance contribution.

General industries

Most employers must calculate employer's national insurance contributions based on general industries.

Calculation code

Specify “general industries”.

Zone

Specify the zone based on the geographical location of the enterprise.

Contribution basis

There are three types of contribution basis:

• employer's national insurance contribution on salary and other payments
• employer's national insurance contribution on pension contributions and premiums
• refunds of sickness benefits etc. giving a reduction in the contribution basis

See contribution basis for more details

If you have several types of contribution basis, you must repeat the calculation code, zone and contribution rate for each contribution basis.

Contribution rate

Specify the contribution rate.   

Zone 1a

For employers in zone 1a, the contribution-free amount is NOK 500,000. For more information, see contribution-free amount and de minimis aid.

If the contribution-free amount has not been used up: Specify 10.6 percent

If the contribution-free amount has been used up: Specify 14.1 percent

Other zones

For employers in other zones, see the table above to find the right rate.

Other industries

Zone

In order to find the right zone, see overview of zones and the supplementary information concerning zones with a description of the exceptions.

Contribution basis

There are three types of contribution basis:

1. Employer's national insurance contributions on salary and  other payments.

Concerns salary and other benefits subject to contributions.

Specify the gross aggregated salary and other benefits subject to contributions.

You must also include salary and benefits subject to contributions which:

• cannot be linked to an income recipient
• are not included in any of the other contribution bases, e.g. benefits below the reporting obligation threshold
  
  

You should not include salary and benefits for:

• employees posted from the USA or Canada
• employees on-board ships in international service

2. Employer's national insurance contributions on pension contributions and premiums

Concerns employers’ contributions and premiums for annuity and pension schemes which are subject to contributions.

Specify the gross aggregated contributions and premiums subject to contributions. Must be specified in the calendar month in which you paid the premium.

Distribute the basis between the relevant contribution zones on the same basis as other benefits subject to contributions in the same calendar month.

3. Refunds of sickness benefits etc. giving a reduction in the contribution basis

Concerns salary and other benefits which you have previously paid for employees who, for example, were on sick leave or maternity leave.

Specify the gross aggregated refund which gives a reduction in the contribution basis. Must be specified in the calendar month in which you receive a refund from NAV.

The amount is negative and must reduce the total calculated employer's national insurance contributions. You must specify the amount with a minus sign.

Use the same contribution rate that you use to calculate employer's national insurance contributions.

Tax-free amount and de minimis aid

The contribution-free amount means that you are can apply a lower rate (differentiated rates) than 14.1 percent when calculating the contributions. You can only apply the lower rate (the differentiated rate) to the contribution-free amount.

The contribution-free amount is NOK 500,000 per year for: 

• general industries in zone 1a
• sector-exempt activity zones 1a - 5
   

The contribution-free amount is NOK 250,000 per year for:

• road freight transport in zone 1a
  
  

Once the contribution-free amount has been used up, you must apply the 14.1 percent rate for the rest of the year. Only one contribution-free amount applies per legal entity (declarant).

See also more about reporting contribution-free amounts for groups of enterprises

De minimis aid

If you have received other de minimis aid in the calendar month for which you are submitting an a-melding, you must specify this in the a-melding.

See also the explanatory information concerning de minimis aid

Only applies if:

• the enterprise can calculate differentiated rates within a contribution-free amount (de minimis aid). This means enterprises that are covered by: 
  • calculation code “General industries” in zone 1a
  • calculation code “Road freight transport” in zone 1a
  • calculation code “Sector-exempt activity" in all zones except zone 1
    
    

If you haven't spent  the contribution-free amount when you receive de minimis aid, you must reduce the contribution-free amount by an amount which corresponds to the aid amount that you received.

If the contribution-free amount is still a positive amount, you can apply the low rate when calculating the benefit.

Example

You run an enterprise in zone 1a, the calculation code is general industries, and the contribution-free amount is NOK 500,000 for a year. In January, your enterprise receives NOK 150,000 in de minimis aid.

Contribution-free amount 500,000 – 150,000 = 350,000

The contribution-free amount has not been used up and you can apply the low rate (differentiated rate) of 10.6 percent when calculating the employer's national insurance contributions. Applies until the remaining component of the contribution-free amount of NOK 350,000 has been spent.

If you receive NOK 500,000 in de minimis aid, the contribution-free amount will be spent and you will have to calculate contributions using the rate of 14.1 percent.

Itinerant enterprise - several zones

Itinerant enterprise means that you have employees who:

• work mainly in another zone with a higher rate than the enterprise is registered under
• and that you are not obliged to register a sub-entity in the other zone.
  
  

This applies for example to:

• transport sector
• construction and engineering sector
• consultancy
• manpower hire

The majority of the work

The majority of the work means that the employee has carried out more than half of the number of working days during the calendar month in another zone with a higher rate than the enterprise is registered under.

If the employee carries out the majority of his or her work during a particular month in another zone with a higher rate than  the enterprise is registered under, you must apply this rate to a proportional share of the salary payments for that calendar month.

Two sets of information

If you report employer's national insurance contributions for an itinerant enterprise, you must provide two sets of information, one for each calculation zone.

In the a-melding, you must provide information concerning:

Mixed enterprise - several types of industry

If you run several different types of business, including sector-exempt industry combined with another industry, you can apply the rates that apply to each of the industries.

The condition for you to do this is that you:

• have a clear accounting divide between the two industries.

If you do not have a clear accounting divide: 

• you must apply the highest rates to the entire contribution basis.

Two sets of information

If you report employer's national insurance contributions for mixed enterprise, you must provide two sets of information, one for each calculation zone.

In the a-melding, you must provide information concerning:

Total calculated employer's national insurance contributions

In addition to information on how you calculate the employer's national insurance contributions, you must also state the total calculated employer's national insurance contributions as separate information in the a-melding. This is also the amount you must pay in employer's national insurance contributions.

Calculate the total amount of employer's national insurance contributions you must pay and state a total amount.

When you must submit reports

You must provide information on employer’s national insurance contributions in the a-melding each month in which you specify salary or other benefits on which you calculate employer’s national insurance contributions.

You must specify employer's national insurance contributions on pension contributions and premiums in the calendar month in which you paid the premium.

You must specify refunds of sickness benefits etc. giving a reduction in the contribution basis in the calendar month in which you received the refund from NAV.

Payment

Employers must pay employer’s national insurance contributions on their own initiative with the first deadline for the calendar year of 15 March followed by the 15th of every other month.  When you pay employer's national insurance contributions, you must aggregate the amounts for the two months.

See also the explanatory information concerning how you pay, KID number and deadlines; see payment of payroll withholding tax and employer’s national insurance contributions

Correcting errors

What we use the information for

The Norwegian Tax Administration uses information concerning total calculated employer's national insurance contributions to collect employer's national insurance contributions. Information on calculation codes, rates, zones and contribution basis is used to check the total amount payable by you that you have specified.

Statistics Norway (SSB) uses the information for statistical purposes.