The tax return for sole proprietorships
The tax return for sole proprietorships is exactly the same as the tax return for you as an individual, but you must also include business information.
The deadline is 31 May every year.
Submitting your tax return
When you have a sole proprietorship, you’re obliged to submit the tax return. You must submit a single tax return that contains both the information about you as a private individual and your business information.
You must also submit the tax return if your business had no revenue during the income year, or if you have recently started or ended your business activity.
You can submit from an accounting or annual settlement system or from skatteetaten.no.
If you use an accounting or annual settlement system that supports the submission of the tax return, you must start in your system. Check with your contractor if you have any questions about this.
Sole proprietorships with an accounting obligation or audit obligation must submit the business information through an accounting or annual accounts system.
When you use an accounting or annual accounts system from a system provider, you'll have entered into an assignment agreement and a data controller agreement with this system provider.
This means that you have given a power of attorney that allows for the sharing of the Tax Administration’s information about you with the system. Your information can then be pre-filled in the tax return.
The Tax Administration will automatically check that anyone using the system has been assigned a role that allows for access to your information.
Many self-employed persons can submit their tax return here on skatteetaten.no.
What you must do
This is what you must do when you’ve opened the tax return
We’ll notify you when your tax return is ready.
There are a number of things you should do before you start:
- Close your bookkeeping for the previous year and have this information available.
- Prepare additional information. For instance, if the sole proprietorship owns a car, you have to enter some additional information. If so, you must have your vehicle logbook ready.
- Find last year's tax return and business information, if relevant.
The first thing you’ll see when you open your tax return, is a message telling you to complete business information. We’ll help you find your way by asking you some questions.
In the business information, you must state all the income, expenses and assets that are relevant for your sole proprietorship. You must only state your debt if it has been registered on your organisation number. If the debt is for you as a private individual, you must state it in your tax return.
You must enter everything personal in your tax return.
Everything that is connected with your business activity must be entered into the business information.
Example:
- The tax return: Your salary, your house, your car
- The business information: Business bank account, commercial vehicle, fixed assets with a purchase price over NOK 30,000
It’s important that you make sure nothing is registered twice. If anything is registered twice, you must delete one of the entries.
If you do not find the business information when you open the tax return, this may mean that we do not have information about you being self-employed.
You must then enter the business information in your tax return.
This is how you do it:
- Type “Business” in the search field in the top right-hand corner of your tax return
- Choose “Income, expenses, wealth and debt from business activity”
- Click the button to go to the business information
You’ll now get the opportunity to complete the business information.
See a film showing you how to add the business information:
Your tax return is pre-filled, but that does not mean that it’s completed.
This means that you must
- check that the information is correct, for example the information regarding your income, debt and wealth
- add or change any information that’s missing or incorrect
If you’re entitled to deductions, this can reduce the basis on which we calculate your tax. This means you could pay less tax. Some deductions will be pre-filled, while you must fill in others yourself.
Where to get help with getting the right tax:
Deductions you may be entitled to as a self-employed persons
As a self-employed person, you should check the deductions for private individuals to make sure you get all the deductions you’re entitled to, for example the parental allowance, travel deduction, etc.
When you’ve checked your tax return and your business information, and everything’s correct, you can submit.
The deadline is 31 May.
You can change and submit as many times as you need. If you get new information or find a mistake, you can add or change information after the deadline has passed.
When we’ve processed your tax return, we prepare a tax assessment for you. We’ll let you know when the tax assessment is ready.
Help to get the taxes right
Identify the taxable income for your sole proprietorship and find out how to report it.
If you’re entitled to deductions, this can reduce the basis on which we calculate your tax. This means you could pay less tax. Some deductions will be pre-filled, while you must fill in others yourself.
Specific information if you
Even if you did not have any business activity last year, you still have to submit your tax return with the business information.
When you open your business information, we’ll ask you some questions. One of the questions will be whether you’ve had any business activity. Answer “no”, and you’ll receive a tax return with no business income.
Before you submit the tax return, you must check your personal tax information.
See a film explaining how to submit the tax return with business information when you have not had any business activity
You must submit the tax return even if you have recently closed your business.
You can still receive a tax return for self-employed persons for two years after you closed your sole proprietorship. You must then submit the tax return for self-employed persons with business information.
When you open your business information for the first time, we will ask you some questions. One of these is if you have operating revenues in excess of NOK 50,000. If you answer no, you’ll receive a simplified business information that is adapted to you.
Spouses, registered partners and spouse-equivalent cohabitants may share income from a joint business between themselves. Both of you must have worked in the business in the income year.
If you represent a deceased person who ran a business, you must submit a tax return for the deceased/estate.
More about what you as a next of kin must decide when a business owner dies
If you’re a partner in a business assessed as a partnership, you must submit a single tax return that contains both the information about you as a private individual and your share of the income and wealth from the company.
More about what you as a partner in a business assessed as a partnership (SDF) must do
Deadline and extension
The deadline for submitting the tax return for businesses is 31 May. You can apply for an extension, but you must do so before the deadline expires.
To receive any tax refunds on time, you must ensure that the account number we have registered is correct.
If you’re having trouble meeting the deadline, you can apply for a deferral.
If you do not submit by the deadline, you may have to pay additional tax or you may be issued an enforcement fine.
Accountants and auditors can also apply for an extension on behalf of their clients.
Foreign companies can apply for an exemption from submitting a tax return. An exemption may be granted if business activity in Norway in the income year has been excepted from taxation in Norway according to a tax treaty.
You can apply for an exemption by logging in and submitting a contact form. Select the topic “Tax return for tax self-assessment”.
To avoid enforcement fines for non-delivery, you should send the application well in advance of the deadline for delivery of the tax return.
You can register or change a bank account number if you want refunds deposited into a different account than the one that’s registered to you.
View or make changes to the tax return for previous years
You can view or make changes to the tax return for your company for the last three income years.
If you’ve submitted the tax return from an accounting or annual settlement system and want to change it, you start a new submission in your system in the year you want to change.
If you’ve submitted it via skatteetaten.no, you must log in and change the information directly. Remember that you must submit the tax return for the changes to be registered.
One tax-return for yourself and your business
When you are a self-employed person it will be enough to submit one tax return, where you enter tax information for both yourself and your business.
Watch how to open and complete the tax return with business information (English subtitles are available):
Help and support to suppliers and partners
If you want access to technical documentation for the tax return, information on how you can test your system, or other useful tips, you’ll find this on the tax return’s page at GitHub:
The tax return on Github (in Norwegian only)
You can also find information about the new tax return at Altinn digitalisering (in Norwegian only).