Tax deduction cards for foreign employees

Tax deduction card

The tax deduction card is an electronic document that shows how much tax you as the employer must deduct before the workers are paid for the work they carried out in Norway. The amount you deduct is called withholding tax and is a prepayment of the tax that the tax authorities estimate your worker must pay. 

Most new foreign workers fall under a simplified tax scheme called PAYE (Pay As You Earn) for foreign workers. Under this scheme, the workers are taxed at a fixed percentage that their employer deduct before every salary payment. The workers can choose to be taxed under the general tax rules instead of under the PAYE scheme. They can make their selection when they apply for a tax deduction card or later. This selection cannot be changed.

From Altinn you can get the information you need to determine which tax deduction card you should retrieve for the individual worker. Use the workers Norwegian identification number to get the information.

The tax deduction card applies to one income year (a calendar year)

If the employee works in Norway from 1 November of one year to 30 March of the following year, he or she will first receive a tax deduction card for the months of November and December and then a new tax deduction card for the months of January, February and March. 

In order for you to retrieve your workers’ tax deduction cards, their employment must be registered.

Workers must visit a tax office for ID check before a tax deduction card can be issued

The tax deduction card will not be issued until the worker has been to an ID check. Without a tax deduction card, the employer must deduct 50 percent tax. The following workers are exempt from the ID check:

• workers who only work on the Norwegian continental shelf
• workers who are working as seafarers on a Norwegian-registered ship
• workers who are foreign artists or sportspersons
• third-country nationals who have been given an ID number by the police

In order to carry out the ID check, the worker must book an appointment at one of the 42 selected tax offices for ID control

If your enterprise has an assignment in Norway, you must report the period the worker shall stay in Norway or on the Norwegian shelf

You can do this in the Assignment and employee register. When you have reported all relevant information about your workers in this register, and when the workers have undergone ID check, the tax deduction card will be issued automatically. 

If your client is a private individual, you do not report the workers in the Assignment and employee register. In that case, you report the employment via the a-melding to NAV’s Register of Employers and Employees (the Aa register).

If the work is not part of an assignment that must be reported, your workers must apply for a tax deduction card themselves. See the wizard: I'm a foreign worker in Norway – What do I need to do? The employer can also submit this application electronically on behalf of the worker.

Exemption from withholding tax

There are different ways to apply for an exemption from withholding tax depending on your country of residence and employment. Generally, your salary payer will apply for an exemption from withholding tax on your behalf. 

• The Nordic Tax Withholding Agreement regulates withholding tax and liability for payroll withholding tax across the Nordic countries. Form NT2 can be sent by post or as an attachment to the contact form.
• For contractors on reportable assignments in Norway, exemption from withholding tax must be applied for when reporting to the Assignment and employee register.

For other applications for exemption from withholding tax, a substantiated application is required. This can be sent as an attachment to the online application for tax deduction cards for foreign employees or by using our contact form.

If you do not get an exemption from withholding tax, you must deduct the tax even if your workers or yourself believe that they are not liable to pay tax to Norway. 

Employers can apply for tax deduction cards on behalf of their foreign employees

As their employer, you can apply for tax deduction cards for your foreign employees. It does not matter whether or not the employee already has a Norwegian national identity number or D number.