Pursuant to section 13, subsection 2, accounting records shall be stored in Norway. The Ministry may in regulations or individual decisions (delegated to the Directorate of Taxes) make exemptions from the provisions in subsection 2 regarding the storage location and period of storage.

Taxable entities without a place of business or domicile in Norway may choose not to register with a VAT representative if the entity is domiciled in an EEA state that pursuant to a tax treaty or other international law agreement with Norway must exchange information and assist with the collection of VAT claims.

A taxable entity that chooses not to have a representative in Norway will, upon application, be permitted to store electronic accounting records at the main company. Access to electronic accounting records from Norway will be required, but it is not required to state a location in Norway where such access is provided. Instead, they must provide an address and the name of a contact person abroad that the tax authorities can contact to get access to the necessary password to log into a web solution. This means that accounting records that only exist on paper normally must be stored in Norway. If the entity subject to a bookkeeping obligation chooses to have accounting records only on paper, these must be brought to Norway within the deadlines stipulated in the regulations pursuant to the bookkeeping act, section 7-4, subsection 1. The entity subject to a bookkeeping obligation may alternatively make the paper based accounting materials electronically available by scanning. It is a precondition that the control authorities are not denied access to the accounting records. Note that specifications of mandatory accounting reports, see section 5 of the Bookkeeping Act, and documentation of the accounting system must be in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English even upon accounting and storage abroad, see section 12 of the Bookkeeping Act.

Applications for dispensation must contain the following information:

• The name and organisation number of the entity with a bookkeeping obligation.
• The grounds for the application.
• A short description of the accounting records the application relates to.
• Information about the main company or other entities involved in storing the accounting records abroad.
• The company name and address to where the accounting records will be stored abroad (location of server).
• An address and name of a contact person abroad that the tax authorities can contact to get access to the necessary password to log into a web solution.
• Information about which languages are used in specifications of mandatory accounting reports and in documentation of the audit trail.

Send the application to:

The Norwegian Tax Administration
P.O. Box 9200 - Grønland
0134 OSLO
Norway