Det du ser på denne siden er en test-versjon. Denne er under arbeid, og testes og kvalitetssikres nå internt i Skatteetaten.

Tax when you rent out houses and properties

Here we’ll let you know how to handle your taxes when you rent out a residential property, an apartment, holiday home or other forms of property in Norway or abroad.

The information is meant for tax residents in Norway and tax residents in other countries who own property in Norway that is rented out.

Find out what applies to you

You must answer 2 to 9 questions to enable us to provide you with the information relevant to you.

Expenses and deductions

Whether your rental income is taxable depends, among other things, on the type of property you’re renting out.

Normally, you'll pay 22 percent tax on any profit.

The rental activity can be considered business activity

Find out whether the rental acitvity should be considered business activity. If so, any profit may be taxed at up to 50.6 percent.

If your rental income is taxable, you can deduct a loss if your expenses are higher than your income.

You cannot claim a deduction for expenses related to short-term rental of your own home or a holiday home you use yourself.

You can claim a deduction for the municipal taxes you pay for the residential property you rent out.

If you pay property tax on the rented-out property, you can also claim a deduction for that.

You cannot claim a deduction for wealth tax on the property you're renting out.

You can claim a deduction for home and contents insurance related to the property you rent out.

You may only claim a deduction for expenses related to maintenance.

This means expenses related to work that restores the property to its previous condition.

Expenses related to work that improves the property or changes it are considered upgrades.

You cannot deduct upgrade expenses from your rental income.
However, you can deduct upgrades from the taxable gain if you sell the property later.

If the residential property previously had a normal standard and is upgraded to a high standard, the expense of the difference is considered an upgrade.

Examples

Performing repairs to the same standard as before.

Painting the house or rooms if they were painted before.

Replacing floors, wall panels, windows, etc. to maintain the same standard as before.

Sanding parquet flooring.

Replacing plumbing.

Replacing the water heater with one of the same size.

Replacing a bathtub, mixer taps, and faucets to maintain the same standard as before.

Replacing the kitchen fittings with new ones that are, by today’s standards, considered of the same standard as before.

Maintenance of a previously tarmacked road or courtyard.

Painting the house for the first time.

Removing or moving walls to make a larger room.

Extending the electrical installations or plumbing system.

Installing a fireplace.

When replacing a wood-burning stove with a pellet-fired stove, the added expense associated with the purchase and installation of the pellet-fired stove will be considered an upgrade.

If a bathroom is moved to a different room in the house, it's considered an upgrade. However, replacing fittings in the old bathroom to the same standard is considered maintenance.

Putting down tarmac for the first time.

Prepare a plot of land for building (water, water supply, road and electricity).

You can claim a deduction for the value of your own maintenance work on the property you rent out. However, the same amount must be reported as income in your tax return for the year the work was done, since the value of your own work is taxable. You can only claim a deduction for work done in the same year.

The value of the work you carry out must be set to what it would have cost to have work of the same quality performed by others. The hourly rate for non-tradesmen must generally be set lower than what a tradesman would have charged, for example, to the hourly rate for unskilled labour. You can find the rates on the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority’s website.

The value of the work you carry out related to upgrades cannot be deducted, but the value of such work can be added to the input value if you later sell the property. The value of the work you carry out cannot be added to the input value if you later sell the property.

These limitations do not apply if you buy a residential property or holiday home that you only rent out and do not use yourself.

The two limitations below apply if your rental income is now fully taxable and you’ve done the following in the past five years. That means the residential property or holiday home has previously been treated as tax-exempt:

Limitation if you rent out for less than 6 months in the first rental year

If you’ve used the property yourself and rent it out for less than 6 months in the first year, you cannot claim deductions for maintenance expenses that year. If the property stands empty after you move out, that period does not count as rented.

Limitation on deductions during the first five rental years

If you’ve used the property yourself and rent it out for more than 6 months in the first year, you can deduct the first NOK 10,000 of maintenance expenses. For expenses above NOK 10,000, the deduction is limited based on the following rates:

The deduction for maintenance expenses is calculated as follows:

Years of tax-exempt in the last five years:	Deduction for maintenance expenses (amounts in NOK):
5 years	10,000 + 50% of the amount exceeding 10,000
4 years	10,000 + 60% of the amount exceeding 10,000
3 years	10,000 + 70% of the amount exceeding 10,000
2 years	10,000 + 80% of the amount exceeding 10,000
1 year	10,000 + 90% of the amount exceeding 10,000
0 years	Full deduction

Exsamples

You own a residential property that you’ve used as your home for more than five years, and you’ve never had taxable rental income from it before. You now plan to rent it out.

In the first year, you rent out more than half of the property for 8 months, and the rental income exceeds NOK 20,000 in the calendar year. The rental income is therefore taxable.
The following year, you rent out the entire property.
Maintenance expenses in the first rental year total NOK 100,000.

Your deduction for the first year will be: NOK 10,000 + (50% x 90,000), that is (10,000 + 45,000) NOK 55,000.

If the maintenance expenses are the same in year 2, the deduction will be NOK 10,000 + (60 percent x 90,000), amounting to (10,000 + 54,000) NOK 64,000.

You can claim a deduction for common expenses you pay to the housing company or cooperative for the residential property you rent out.
You cannot deduct repayments of joint debt. If repayments are included in the common expenses, you’ll need to subtract them before claiming the deduction in your tax return.
You cannot deduct interest on shared debt when calculating taxable rental income. If interest is included in the common expenses, you’ll need to subtract that too.

You can deduct expenses for advertising your rental property. You can also deduct expenses for rental services and viewings to find tenants.

If you pay ground rent for the plot your rental property stands on, you can deduct the ground rent. Ground rent is paid to the landowner if you do not own the plot yourself.

You can deduct costs for electricity, heating, and cleaning related to the rental property, if you pay for these yourself. It’s assumed you pay these costs if they’re included in the rent.

You can also deduct the cost of cleaning products you’ve paid for.

You can claim deductions for travel expenses related to the rental, such as viewings, maintenance, and inspections. If the rental is not considered a business, you can deduct actual costs. If the rental is not considered business activity, you can deduct actual expenses. If you use a private car, you can deduct based on the rate for business travel.

If the rental is considered a business, you can deduct travel expenses according to the general rules for travel to/from work and work-related travel. If you make up to 10 trips per year to a rental property or need to stay overnight, the travel is considered work-related. If you travel more than 10 days per year without overnight stays, it is considered as travel to/from work.

If you’ve set up a security deposit account in connection with the rental, you can deduct the account fee.

You may claim a deduction for expenses related to surveys of the rented-out residential property when reporting information about the area in order to assess the taxable value of your property.

You can deduct wear and tear on furniture and home contents.

Some purchases can be deducted immediately. Others must be depreciated, which means you deduct the cost over several years. Depreciation reflects the loss in value as the item is used and worn.

Deduction in the year of purchase

If you rent out a furnished property, you can deduct the full cost of furniture and home contents in the year of purchase if:

they’re mainly purchased for use in the rental property
they lose value due to wear and tear and/or ageing
they have an input value of less than NOK 30,000 or a useful life of less than three years

Example of deduction in the year of purchase:
If you buy a bed for NOK 27,000, you can deduct the full amount in the year of purchase. The same applies if you buy a snow shovel for NOK 700.

Depreciations

If the cost of furniture or home contents is NOK 30,000 or more, you can use declining-balance depreciation (depreciation group D, rate 20 percent). In practice, the balance never reaches zero, but when the remaining value is below NOK 30,000 (before depreciation for the year), you can deduct the full remaining amount.

Example of depreciation:
If you buy a couch for NOK 50,000 in year 1, you can claim a deduction for depreciations amounting to (50,000 x 20 percent) NOK 10,000 in the first year.

In year 2, the residual value is (50,000 – 10,000) NOK 40,000, you can claim a deduction for the year's depreciations amounting to (40,000 x 20 percent) NOK 8,000.

Exemptions from depreciation

If you rent out the property fully furnished for less than three years and use the furniture yourself before and after the rental period, you can deduct 15 percent of the gross rental income instead of using depreciation.

Example of how deductions are calculated:
You rent out your furnished residential property for two years.
The agreed annual rent is NOK 200,000.

Instead of declining-balance depreciations, you can claim a deduction for depreciations amounting to (200,000 x 15 percent) NOK 30,000 in both year 1 and year 2 (in total, NOK 60,000).

Maintenance

Expenses needed to keep the property in the same condition as before are considered maintenance.

Examples of maintenance:

Performing repairs to the same standard as before.
Painting the house or rooms if they were painted before.
Replacing floors, wall panels, windows, etc. to maintain the same standard as before.
Sanding parquet flooring.
Replacing plumbing.
Replacing the water heater with one of the same size.
Replacing a bathtub, mixer taps, and faucets to maintain the same standard as before.
Replacing the kitchen fittings with new ones that are, by today’s standards, considered of the same standard as before.
Maintenance of a previously tarmacked road or courtyard.

Upgrades

Expenses that improve the property or change its layout are considered upgrades. For example, if the property was previously of a normal standard and is upgraded to a high standard, the expenses related to the difference between normal and high standard will be considered an upgrade.

Examples of upgrades:

Painting the house for the first time.
Removing or moving walls to make a larger room.
Extending the electrical installations or plumbing system.
Installing a fireplace.
When replacing a wood-burning stove with a pellet-fired stove, the added expense associated with the purchase and installation of the pellet-fired stove will be considered an upgrade.
If a bathroom is moved to a different room in the house, it's considered an upgrade. However, replacing fittings in the old bathroom to the same standard is considered maintenance.
Putting down tarmac for the first time.
Prepare a plot of land for building (water, water supply, road and electricity).

You can use the specification form for maintenance and upgrades to help allocate costs correctly.

Tax when you rent out commercial property

Commercial property refers to property used in the owner’s or tenant’s business activity.

Examples include: Shops, offices, warehouses, premise for industrial activity, parking garages, etc. Rental of residential or holiday property may also be considered part of the owner’s business activity.

Renting out business properties

Indicative answer

Since we've not considered all the circumstances affecting your taxes, this response is only an indicative answer. It’s not a binding answer from us.

Taxable rental income must be included in the tax return.

This guide does not necessarily cover all types of circumstances. For more detailed information, check the guide Skatte ABC (in Norwegian only).

Find out what applies if you live in Norway and own real property in another Nordic country.