Liability to pay tax

You are liable to pay tax on the salary and value of free board and lodging you receive. This also applies where you hold a work permit in Norway in accordance with the special scheme for au pairs.

Rights

As your employer, the child’s parents are required to register the employment relationship with the tax authorities.

You normally have a right to sick pay if you are sick and unemployment benefit if you become unemployed.

You also make payments to your retirement pension. If you were born in 1954 or later, then your retirement pension is based on the new rules on accrued pension funds: annual pension accrual being 18.1 per cent of the pensionable income. If you were born in 1953 or earlier, then your pension accrues based on the old pension credits regulations. You also receive pension credits if your total personal income for the year exceeds the national insurance scheme’s average basic amount.

Check with NAV about the rules for this and what other rights you have in the National Insurance scheme.

Tax card

You should order a tax card if you do not have one. Employers must deduct 50 per cent of your salary as tax if you do not have a tax card. If the information on your tax card is incorrect, then you can change your tax card.

Your employer obtains your tax deduction card electronically from the Tax Administration. So, you do not need to submit anything to your employer.

A-melding and tax return

In accordance with the simplified scheme, your employer is to provide you with a copy of the simplified message each time you are paid salary. You will however not receive a summary in the January of the year after the income year.

If your employer does not use the simplified message and instead uses an ordinary a-melding, then you should receive a payslip for each salary payment and a summary of how much you have earned in the January of the year after the income year.

Salary which is reported to the Norwegian Tax Administration on a simplified message or a-melding is included in your tax return. You must enter the correct amount yourself if the amount on the tax return is incorrect or missing. You must therefore safely archive the simplified messages, payslips and summaries you receive so that you know what you have been paid in the course of the year. The messages or summary are your proof of how much withholding tax has been deducted from your salary. Amounts deducted as tax will be set off against the tax calculated on your final tax settlement.

If the childminding is carried out in a contractual employment relationship, then you have the right to holiday pay. Holiday pay normally is 10.2 per cent of the holiday pay basis in the year of accrual. Paid holiday pay is not included in the basis for new holiday pay. Holiday pay is not accrued on salaries for individual childminding assignments (i.e. babysitting).

Assessments, social security contributions and pension credits

Your tax settlement specifies how much your calculated tax and social security contributions is and whether you are required to pay residual tax receive or will receive a refund. It also states whether you have earned any pension credits.

Foreign nannies/au pairs

You will normally be a member of the Norwegian national insurance scheme from the first working day. Check with NAV about the rules for this and what other rights you have in the National Insurance scheme.

The first time you obtain a tax card, you must visit the tax office to prove your identity.

For more information, see Information to foreign employees: On tax, tax card and tax return.