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Gains, losses or dividends on shares

The tax is higher on gains and dividends on shares than on other capital income. The deduction is also higher when you sell shares with a loss. We therefore automatically adjust income on shares with an income addition and loss on shares with an extra deduction.

We make an upward adjustment to income and deductions on shares and other financial products that include a share component, for example, securities funds, investment fund accounts and share savings accounts.

You'll find the upwardly adjusted amounts for dividends, gains and losses on the sale of shares at the bottom of your tax return, under «Summary and tax calculation». The amounts are calculated automatically, and you cannot change this calculation.

Select year

Factor

The factor for the 2023 income year is 1.72.

Example

You receive a dividend of NOK 100,000. The amount for 2023 must be multiplied by 1.72 before taxation of 22 percent.

100,000 x 1.72 = 172,000
172,000 x 0.22 = 37,840
In this example, the tax on your dividend of NOK 100,000 is NOK 37,840.

The example only shows upward adjustment and does not take into account any deduction for risk-free return. The upward adjustment applies to taxable dividends after the deductible risk-free return.

The income is adjusted upwards so that the total taxation of income from company and shareholder is taxed as equally as possible to the taxation of salary.

Salary will be subject to the same tax rate as for general income, 22 percent, as well as bracket tax and national insurance contributions. The total marginal tax rate can therefore exceed 45 percent. Private limited companies pay 22 percent tax on their profit. When profits are distributed as dividend, general income tax of 22 percent is levied. To make the marginal tax rate as similar as possible to the taxation of salaries, income from shares is adjusted upwards by a factor of 1.72.

Example:
I own and work in my private limited company. I do not pay myself a salary, only dividend. My company has made a profit of NOK 100,000, and the company pays NOK 22,000 in tax (22 percent).

I withdraw the profit after tax, NOK 78,000, as dividend. If this amount was taxed 22 percent without any upward adjustment, the payable tax on the profit would have amounted to NOK 17,160. Total taxes on the profit from my company would then amount to 39.16 percent (22,000 + 17,160).

This is below the marginal tax rate for salaries, therefore the dividend of NOK 78,000 is multiplied by the factor 1.72 (78,000 x 1.72 = 134,160).

The taxable dividend of NOK 134,160 is then taxed at 22 percent, which amounts to NOK 29,515. Therefore, total tax levied from the company and shareholder is 51.52 percent (the company pays 22,000, the shareholder pays 29,515). This is approximately the same as the marginal tax on salaries.

The rule of upward adjustment on income from shares applies regardless of whether you own 100 percent of the company or only own a few shares in a large company that is listed on the stock exchange.