In certain situations, spouses can reduce their combined tax

Spouses and spouse-equivalent cohabitants, where one of them receives a low pension, may reduce their overall tax in certain cases.

To reduce their overall tax, spouses and spouse-equivalent cohabitants can freely choose who should declare capital income/deductions in their tax returns. This can be done by moving capital income to the tax return of the spouse with the low pension.

NB! This means you cannot use the submission exemption arrangement, but have to submit the tax return.

Everyone who has received throughout 2022

  • 100 percent retirement pension from the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme or 100 percent early-retirement pension in the public sector and
  • has a combined pension income not exceeding NOK 210,950

can receive a tax deduction of up to NOK 33,400 kroner. The deduction is limited to the sum of assessed income tax and national insurance contributions.

If your pension was lower than NOK 210,950 in 2022 and you did not have any other income, the total income tax and national insurance contribution will be less than NOK 33,400. However, you will not have made use of the maximum tax deduction.

Spouses can freely choose who should declare capital income, capital expenses and certain other deductions in their tax return. The Tax Administration has pre-filled these incomes and deductions in the tax return of the spouse under whom they are reported. It is not possible to propose a different allocation in the pre-filled tax return. If you wish to make use of the opportunity to transfer such incomes and deductions, both of you must correct the pre-filled amounts in your tax returns and submit them.

List of incomes and deductions that may be transferred between the two of you.

Moving capital income or capital expenses may be relevant for you, or both if you receives an retirement pension and:

  • one of you have such a low pension ("minimum pension") that they cannot make use of their maximum tax deduction for pension income and the other has their own income/pension and
  • you have capital income that have been pre-completed in the tax return of the person with the highest income, and/or capital deductions that have been pre-completed in the tax return of the person with the low pension.

Is the maximum tax deduction NOK 32,825 – higher than the tax deduction stated in your provisional tax calculation? Then you might not be taking advantage of all your available tax deductions. Here you’ll find more information if you’ve not made use of your maximum tax deduction.

Try using our tax calculator to calculate your taxes and deductions.