Press Release: Instalment Tax 2025

After collecting estimates from the petroleum companies, petroleum tax for the 2025 income year is estimated at approximately NOK 336 billion. This represents a reduction of NOK 45 billion compared to the instalment tax result for 2024 which eventually ended at NOK 381 billion.

The all-time high level of paid instalment tax was in 2022 with NOK 884 billion. The high tax revenue in 2022 can mainly be explained by extreme gas prices and a weak Norwegian krone compared to USD/EUR/GBP.

The tax paid by the petroleum companies is deposited into the Government Pension Fund Global.

Assessment of Instalment Tax

Petroleum companies engaging in extraction and pipeline transportation on the Norwegian Continental shelf pay advance tax through so-called instalment tax. The instalment tax is paid in ten instalments - five in the second half-year of the income year and five in the first half-year following the income year. The assessment is based on the figures (both actual and estimated) reported by the petroleum companies.

There is a revision of the instalment tax in January of the year following the income year prior to the deadline for the sixth instalment. The companies have an option to make higher payments than the assessed amounts with their second/third/fourth and seventh/eighth/ninth instalments. The final payment may therefore end up either higher or lower than the present assessment.

Facts About Instalment Tax

• The Petroleum Taxation Act has a special advance tax scheme called instalment tax, according to section 7 of the Petroleum Taxation Act.

• Instalment tax is assessed by the Oil Taxation Office for each income year and is payable in ten instalments, five in the income year and five in the year following the income year.

• The instalment tax for each income year is assessed in June/July in the income year. The assessment is based on information collected from the companies and consists of actual figures for parts of the first half-year and of estimates for the rest of the year.

• The Oil Taxation Office may revise the instalment tax before the payment deadline of the sixth instalment. This revision is based on actual figures for most of the income year.

• The deadlines for payment of the instalment tax are respectively 1 August, 1 September, 1 October, 1 November and 1 December in the income year, and 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 2 May and 1 June in the year following the income year.

• The companies have an option to make additional payments to the assessed instalments if they consider their original estimates to be too low. Such additional payments will be divided on three mid-term periods, respectively the second, third, fourth instalments in the income year and seventh, eighth and ninth instalments in the following year.

• Interest is calculated when there is a discrepancy between the instalment tax for the five first and the five final instalments.

• The tax assessment for each income year is due by 1 December of the year following the income year. There will be a reconciliation between the assessed tax/tax refund and the instalment tax.

More information about petroleum tax is to be found here