Briefly 

These guidelines are a review of the rules for reporting government aid (“state aid”) to the State Aid Register (ROFS). 

The Norwegian Tax Administration, in its role as a provider of state aid (granter) with regards to tax benefits, is required to register granted state aid in a national register (ROFS) in Brønnøysund. These guidelines provide relevant information in connection with the regulations and legislation on state aid. The review covers items like reporting rules, who is obliged to report, and what comes under the duty of disclosure. 

The guidelines contain both practical and legal information on completion and submission. 

The reporting obligation applies to all allocations of state aid that come under Article 61 of the EEA Agreement, which implies that the amount of aid granted under a single national legal basis (aid scheme) exceeds EUR 500,000. For regionally differentiated employer´s national insurance contributions the threshold amount is EUR 100,000. National legal basis means the legal framework that entitles the aid beneficiary to receive the allocated aid. Note that the combined aid to all the enterprises in a group must be taken into consideration to determine if the aid allocation is subject to reporting obligation. The structure of the group must be evaluated according to EU’s framework of regulations. The term “group” should be understood according to its use in EEA legislation, see EU Commission Regulation No 651/2014, Annex I Articles 3 and onwards.

In most cases of individual allocation, the decision on the allocation will serve as basis for the aid. In the case of tax benefits, the act or regulation relating to state aid will determine the tax benefit given to the aid beneficiary. 

Who must report 

All businesses that receive a reduction in tax and duties for the 2021 income year must report this to the Norwegian Tax Administration. 

Everyone who is granted an exemption or a reduction of taxes exceeding EUR 500,000 for the 2022 income year must report this to the Tax Administration. For regionally differentiated employer´s national insurance contributions the threshold amount is EUR 100,000. The currency rate for calculating granted aid in 2022 was NOK 9.9703.

Only enterprises that carry out economic activity must submit this form. State and municipal enterprises without economic activity have no reporting obligation. 

To fill in the RF-1354 form (Notification regarding state aid under the Tax Administration's aid schemes, in Norwegian only), you need one of the following Altinn roles: Accounting employee, Assistant auditor or Accountant without signing rights.  

Signing the form requires the role Limited signing rights, Reporter/Sender or Accountant with signing rights. 

If the company is subject to auditing, they need the Auditor role or the Responsible auditor role. 

You can check the roles assigned to you by an operator on the page entitled Access manager. If you do not have these roles, you must ask someone who does to delegate them to you. 

This applies to businesses who are granted: 

• Reduced electricity tax for the industry 
• Reduced electricity tax for district heating manufacturers 
• Reduced electricity tax in the target zoneReduced electricity tax for data centres with an electricity load exceeding 0.5 MW 
• Reduced electricity tax for the production or conversion of energy products 
• Reduced electricity tax for commercial vessels 
• Exemption for NOx tax for businesses that have entered into an environmental agreement with the Norwegian state. 
• Exemption from CO2 tax on mineral oil and petrol for usage resulting in emissions within allocated quotas according to the Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Act 
• Reduced tax/exemption from the CO2 tax on gas for usage resulting in emissions within the allocated allowances according to the Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Act 
• Reduced basic tax on mineral oil for the wood processing industry 
• Reduced basic tax on mineral oil for the pigment industry 
• Exemption from road traffic insurance tax for electric cars 
• Exemption from registration transfer fee for electric cars 
• Exemption for value added tax (VAT) on sales and leasing of electric cars, and sales of batteries for electric cars 
• VAT exemption for the sale of electronic news services 
• Research and development costs – SkatteFUNN 
• State aid in the form of favourable wind power depreciation 
• Increased depreciation rate for vans that run exclusively on electricity 
• Special tax scheme for employment-related options in small, newly established businesses 
• Favourable depreciation rules for LNG-facilities on Melkøya (Snøhvit) 
• Differentiated employer's national insurance contributions for the transportation and energy sector 
• Regionally differentiated employer's national insurance contributions 
• Favourable detemined list prices in connection with the use of electric vehicles as company cars.
•  

Read more about these schemes here: About Government aid (state aid). 

Consequences of not reporting  

If an aid beneficiary does not uphold the reporting obligation, they may be required to return the subsidy they have received. 

No exemption from the reporting obligation 

According to current laws and regulations, the Norwegian Tax Administration is not entitled to grant exemptions from the reporting obligation. 

How to report in Altinn 

The registration must be carried out electronically by using Altinn form RF-1354 Melding om offentlig støtte under Skatteetatens støtteordninger (Notification regarding state aid under the Tax Administration`s subsidy schemes, in Norwegian only) 

You must provide information on the following 

Aid beneficiary 

You must state the organisation number for the enterprise that received the aid. The organisation number has been pre-filled using your login information in Altinn. 

Aid beneficiary sub-entity 

You must state the organisation number of the aid beneficiary’s sub-entity that received the state aid. 

The entity’s organisation number must only be stated if this identifies the aid beneficiary in more detail than at enterprise level. Never enter the same organisation numbers in both fields. 

If the aid beneficiary’s sub-entities received subsidies under more than one aid scheme, individual forms must be submitted for each of the subsidy schemes. 

The relationship between the main enterprise and sub-entities is explained on the Brønnøysund Register Centre’s website 

Allocated aid amount 

To determine the subsidy amount, the aid beneficiary must calculate the difference between the tax benefit given and the general rate that would have applied without the aid. This difference must be reported to the Norwegian Tax Administration if it exceeds the threshold amount of EUR 500,000. For regionally differentiated employer´s national insurance contributions the threshold amount is EUR 100,000.

The reporting obligation concerns granted aid in excess of the threshold amount on group level, within one calendar year.

If more than one enterprise in the same group has been granted aid connected to subsidy eligible costs under one aid scheme and the same national legal basis, the threshold amount will be reached when the total amount of the combined subsidies for all entities reaches EUR 500,000 or more (EUR 100,000 for regionally differentiated employer´s national insurance contributions). For aid in the form of favourable wind power depreciations, calculations must be made based on the investments that qualify for depreciations in the relevant year, pursuant to section 14-51 of the Taxation Act. The aid amount constitutes the current value of the annual differences between tax depreciations according to section 14-51 of the Taxation Act and ordinary balance depreciations according to the assets’ life expectancy for tax purposes. The current value must be calculated at a discount interest rate reflecting relevant risk. The same method is used when calculating the state aid in the form of increased depreciation rates for vans that run exclusively on electricity.

Note that the combined aid to all the enterprises in a group must be taken into consideration to determine if the aid allocation is subject to the reporting obligation. The structure of the group must be evaluated according to EU’s framework of regulations. 

Aid given in the form of tax benefits must be calculated per year. The reported aid amount must be specified in Norwegian kroner. When converting the Norwegian aid amount into EUR, the official currency rate set by ESA will be used. The exchange rate is set at the beginning of each year and is available on ESA’s website. 

The date on which the beneficiary received the subsidy claim is considered as the allocation date, according to section 4 of the Regulation on the Registration of State Aid. Tax benefits are considered allocated on the date the tax return was submitted if it shows tax advantages. If the tax return does not show tax benefits, the allocation date is considered to be 31 December of the year the benefit has been received. 

Size of the aid beneficiary 

The aid beneficiary must report whether they are a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a large enterprise. For businesses that receive tax benefits, it is the size of the business at the time of registration (when they submit the tax return) that applies. The definition of what is considered as micro, small, medium-sized or large enterprise is covered in chapter 10 in ESA`s State aid guidelines. 

A company is considered “LARGE” if its number of FTEs (full-time equivalents) exceeds 250, and if it has either a turnover of more than EUR 50,000,000 or a balance exceeding EUR 43,000,000. A company is considered “MEDIUM-SIZED” if its number of employees is less than 250, the annual turnover does not exceed EUR 50 million and/or the balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 43 million. A company is considered “SMALL” if its number of employees/FTEs is less than 50, and the annually turnover and/or the balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 mill.

Relevant industry sector for this aid scheme 

The rules and guidelines for industry classifications are found in the Standard Industrial Classification (abbreviated to SIC), which is based on the EU standard NACE.

The standard consists of main groups and sub-groups. The industry code used in the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entitles (CCR) in the Brønnøysund Register Centre corresponds to SIC/NACE at the lowest level. The SIC standard is one of the most important standards in economic statistics and is used for comparing and analysing information over time. The industrial code is also used for administrative purposes. 

You must state the NACE code under which the subsidy has been granted. This must correspond with the information the authorities have reported to ESA. You can only use the NACE codes that appear after you’ve selected the subsidy scheme. The company does not necessarily have to be registered under this code in the Central Coordinating Register of Legal Entities. It is the company’s responsibility to use the correct SIC/NACE industrial standard code. If the correct NACE code is not available in the list, please contact the Norwegian Tax Administration by email: [email protected]. 

Region 

The aid beneficiary must report the region in which they are located. The region must be registered at a county level. You must report only one region per allocated subsidy. An enterprise operating in two regions, must report the subsidy for that region which is the location for the major part of the activity covered by the aid. 

Reporting deadline 

The reporting deadline for the 2022 income year is 1 December 2023. 

Correcting errors 

A granted subsidy is uniquely identified by the aid beneficiary (business + enterprise), the selected aid scheme and the year. 

You can correct errors in the information submitted by submitting a new form (with the same aid beneficiary (business + enterprise), the selected aid scheme and the year) and making the necessary corrections. 

If you want to cancel a previous submission completely, you must submit a new form (with the same aid beneficiary (business + any enterprise), selected subsidy scheme and the year), where the aid amount is set to zero. 

The most recent submission always applies. No corrections can be made after the reporting deadline of 1 December. 

Relevant legislation 

• The Act on State Aid 
• The Regulation to the Act on State Aid 
• The Regulation on the Registration of State Aid 
• The Taxation Act, sections 5-31, 14-43, 14-51 and 16-40 
• The Value Added Tax Act 
• The Value Added Tax Regulation 
• The Excise Duty Regulation 
• The Regulation on Registration Transfer Fee 
• The parliamentary resolution (Storting Resolution) on excise duties for the 2022 budget year 
• The parliamentary resolution (Storting Resolution) on the assessment of duties, etc., for the National Insurance Scheme for 2022 
• Article 61 (state aid) of the EEA Agreement 

Relevant websites 

• The State Aid Register 
• ESA’s website on State aid 
• The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries guide to state aid (in Norwegian only) 
• Guide to the rules on state aid in the EEA Agreement (in Norwegian only) 
• Guidelines for reporting of state aid to the State Aid Register (ROFS) (in Norwegian only)