Dekor lav

Clarifications

Below follows a summary of clarifications and more detailed descriptions from the legal department in the Norwegian Tax Administration. The clarifications are grouped by chapter and sections in the Regulation.

The summary is updated continuously.

Section 5 of the law: Conditions for contributions

Sick leave and other types of absence

The employees' salary costs cannot be covered by the national insurance scheme or other public subsidy schemes. The employees must be brought back to active work. You cannot apply for subsidies for employees who are on sick leave and where the salary costs are covered by the national insurance scheme at the start of the application month. If an employee is reported sick during the application month, you can still apply for a subsidy.

Example
The employee is on sick leave from 3 October until 2 November. You can apply for a subsidy for October, but not for November.

Section 2-5 of the Regulation – Additional conditions for subsidies

In general, the conditions in the provision must be met at the time of applying, at the very latest. For letters e, f and g, the conditions must also continue to be met right up until the time of payment.

Arrears, see section 2-5 subsection 1 letter b of the Regulation:

Taxes, duties and advance tax deductions that were due before 29 February 2020 must be paid in their entirety at the very latest by the time of application. The same applies in cases where a payment agreement has been entered into for amounts that were due before the 29 February 2020.

Submitting the tax return, see section 2-5 subsection 1 letter c of the Regulation:

The tax return will be considered “submitted”, for the purposes of the Regulation, if the enterprise has submitted the tax return, even in cases where the auditor has submitted a negative audit report and has not signed the income statement.

Bank account, see section 2-5 letter d of the Regulation:

The term “subsidy recipient” refers to the enterprise that has submitted the application for a subsidy. Only Norwegian bank account numbers appear in the banks' joint account and address register (KAR). This means that a Norwegian bank account number is required for subsidy payments. Many sole proprietorships use bank accounts registered to the owner’s national identity number. In these cases, a separate bank account must be opened that can be registered to the enterprise’s organisation number in the KAR register. This must be done before the application can be submitted.

Section 3-1 of the Regulation – The term "revenue"

Income from franchises, royalties, etc. and the term “revenue”:

Income from licenses, royalties and franchise fees will be considered revenue pursuant to section 3-1 (1) of the Regulations.

The term revenue in relation to building and construction projects

The term revenue in section 3-1 of the Regulation refers to income from sales and goods that are delivered and services that are rendered by the enterprise in the month in question. In the building and construction industry it is generally a requirement that sales documents be issued in accordance with “progress”, see section 8-1-2 letter a of the Bookkeeping Regulation. For this industry «progress» means «delivery». It is the value of goods that are delivered and services that are rendered inclusive of “profits” that must be declared, that is, the periodised share of the agreed remuneration. This applies irrespective of how the sales are entered into the accounts.

In the case of a contract worker or similar, the agreed payment plan can form the basis for the invoicing unless it diverges considerably from the real progress in the period, see section 5-2-4 of the Bookkeeping Regulation. This can involve a small discrepancy compared to the real progress. If, for example, an invoice is issued in April for building and construction work carried out in March according to an agreed invoice plan, the invoiced revenue in April can be counted as revenue for March if this does not diverge considerably from the real progress.

For enterprises with projects that started either totally or partly on their “own initiative”, the revenue will only exist once a contract for sale has been entered into (for example residential property). In this case, the revenue must be considered as existing concurrently with entering into the contract and the building and construction progress. If a contract is entered into upon completion of a residential property, the revenue will be considered to exist only at this point in time.

Income from capital

Income or yield from capital, real property or other financial assets must not be included. However, rental income from real property must still be included.

Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duties

Value added tax and excise duties relating to sales income will not be considered income

Section 3-2 of the Regulation – Drop in revenue

Merger and demerger:

Enterprises that have restructured, for example in the form of a merger or demerger during 2019, must use their average monthly revenue in the calendar months January and February 2020 as a basis for calculating the drop in revenue. Establishing new departments will not be considered restructuring, but rather an extension of the existing business. For enterprises that have changed their line of business, the drop in revenue must be calculated using the general rule.

Growth factors

If the enterprise has not had revenue for January/February 2019 or in January/February 2020, the growth factor is set to 1 automatically when calculating the drop in revenue.