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TAXES

Five things to do once you get your tax return notice in Norway

In Norway, mid-March is usually the time of year when people start getting their tax return notices. Remember that these are not finalised – you'll need to check them yourself and likely make some adjustments.

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Here are some steps that can be taken to increase your chances of receiving a potentially greater tax refund. Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Most people working in Norway will get their tax return notices for 2022 between March 14th and the start of April. After that, they’ll have until April 30th to check their tax notice and rectify any potential mistake in it.

While most people make sure to take a close look at their tax returns, some don’t bother and just submit the first pre-filled version they get from the tax authorities.

If you fall into the second category, know that you might be leaving money on the table, as – for example – adding additional deductions to your tax return can help you get back the money that the Norwegian state owes you.

Step 1: Take the time to inspect the tax return notice thoroughly

The tax return notice you’ll get from the Norwegian Tax Administration isn’t the complete and final version – you need to thoroughly analyse it, change any potential errors, and add any missing information before you submit it.

Regardless of whether you’ll get a return or need to pay extra tax, you need to set aside an hour or two to go through everything.

Don’t make the mistake of blindly submitting the pre-filled form. It’s your personal responsibility to ensure that all the included information is correct and complete.

The deadline for submitting the tax return is April 30th – if you can, try to go through the document as soon as possible. Last year, as many as 500,000 taxpayers had not opened their tax returns until two days before the deadline.

That means that if you wait until the last moment, you’ll have a harder time reaching the Tax Administration in case of any questions or doubts.

Step 2: Change outdated and incorrect information, add missing information

Read through all the sections of the pre-filled tax return form, and make sure to update or change information if necessary.

Also, this is the time to add any missing information – especially when it comes to your income, as the Tax Administration might not have the latest data on your finances.

Once you’re done inspecting all the elements of the form, it’s time to focus on one of the more important tax return aspects for most consumers, deductions.

Step 3: Can you claim tax deductions?

Now is the time to check whether you can add tax deductions to your tax return.

The Norwegian Tax Administration has a handy tax deduction wizard that you can use to figure out whether you can claim any additional deductions based on your health and family, work and education, housing and property, loans, donations, and other factors. You can find it here.

It’s not uncommon to find an additional couple thousand kroner you can get back from the state in deductions – just make sure to follow the rules.

As the travel deduction rules in Norway have changed this year, double-check whether you can claim travel expenses in your tax return.

Travel is especially important as the Tax Administration has no overview of how many days you worked from a home office, so you need to add the relevant number of days and kilometres travelled in 2022 yourself.

Step 4: Contact the Tax Administration if you have any concerns or dilemmas

Once you’ve done everything you can, it’s usually smart to contact the Tax Administration and clear up any potential concerns that you might have.

It never hurts to get expert advice from the authorities. Remember, they’re here to help you; their job is to make the process as smooth as possible.

If you go through your tax return as soon as you get it, you’ll likely have no problem reaching someone to help you at the Tax Administration’s support centre in case of any dilemmas. Just don’t wait until April 30th to call them – they’ll likely be swamped!

Bonus tip: If you realise that you missed out on some deductions in a previous year, you might still be able to claim them. Remember that you can make changes up to three years in the past. Major life events usually have financial repercussions, so if you changed jobs, bought a house, lost a spouse, have children who started going to kindergarten, or similar, you might need to add new information to the tax return document.

Step 5: If you need to pay additional taxes, do so within the set deadline

If you’re not getting a return but instead need to pay additional taxes, make sure to do so within the stated deadline (May 31st).

Should you fail to do so, you will have to pay interest on the tax you owe the state.

Note: It’s easy to make a mistake while filling out the tax return form, especially when you need to add information yourself (for example, quantifying some investments – such as crypto – can pose a challenge).

The Tax Administration has created multiple guides on its website to help taxpayers with questions and issues that are often brought up as complicated or demanding. You can find them here.

If you submit your tax return early on and are entitled to a return, you might get the money paid back already in April. However, this only applies to electronic submissions – the paper ones take a bit longer to process. However, most people can expect to get their payment by the end of June.

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ECONOMY

How long will the Norwegian krone remain weak? 

The Norwegian krone has been at its lowest value for three years. So how long will Norway's currency struggle against the dollar, the euro and the pound? 

How long will the Norwegian krone remain weak? 

Norway’s krone is down to most major currencies considerably since the turn of the year. Since the turn of the month, the drop-off has been even sharper. 

In immediate terms, this means less value for money when using the currency abroad, and in the longer term may mean higher inflation and interest rates. 

READ MORE: What does the weakened Norwegian krone mean for you?

There are a number of reasons for why the Norwegian krone has performed weakly, from Norway having a lower key policy interest rate than the US or the Eurozone, investors taking less risk, the central bank Norges Bank selling kroner and the krone falling with the stock market and oil prices. 

Some of the factors are also further compounded by Norway having a floating exchange rate. This means that Norges Bank doesn’t intervene in the market to try and support the currency. 

In contrast, some European countries have their domestic currencies tied to the euro. Norway’s Scandinavian neighbour Denmark is an example of this. Here, central banks intervene to ensure that the exchange rate of their domestic currency and the euro stays the same. This is referred to as a fixed exchange policy. 

READ MORE: What is making the Norwegian krone so weak?

Some of the factors behind the krone being weak also act as hints as to when the currency could begin a recovery. First up is interest rates. Norges Bank is expected to raise the key policy rate above its initial target of three percent due to the weak krone and higher inflation. 

Experts predict that the key policy rate could, in fact, be raised to between 3.5 and 3.75 percent. However, this would still leave the key interest rate below the US’s Federal Reserve interest rate, or federal funds rate, which is set at 4.75 percent. 

However, raising the key policy rate will help to make the krone a more attractive proposition for investors, with high-interest rates historically contributing to a strong krone. Norway’s next key policy rate announcement is pencilled for March 23rd. 

Furthermore, as the financial markets stabilise, so should the Norwegian stock market and the krone. And, if oil and gas prices rise, the krone should follow suit. 

Overall It can be hard to pin down when the situation could improve for the Norwegian krone. Nordea Markets expects the krone to stay weak all the way to the summer months. It said that due to the various factors involved, the krone’s recovery may not meet this time frame. 

Chief economist Elisabeth Holvik at Sparebank 1 also believes that the krone will continue to struggle in the short term. 

“There are no trends that point to the krone strengthening again. We are approaching the crisis levels from the pandemic, when the financial market in Norway was close to stopping had it not been for the US central bank creating a scheme for lending dollars to Norges Bank,” she told the business news outlet DN

Meanwhile, DNB writes that the krone will remain weak for as long as uncertainty over a potential banking crisis looms over financial markets worldwide. 

“We still think the krone can strengthen, but the market turmoil must probably subside first. As long as the risk of a banking crisis is uncomfortably high, it will probably help to limit the possibilities for krone strengthening in the future. But in the short term, we believe that oil prices will rise as the oil market tightens, and we aim for an oil price above 100 dollars a barrel this autumn,” DNB wrote in a report. 

Danske Bank Norway believes that the krone will rise in the more longer-term thanks to energy prices. 

“So, to summarise why the Norwegian krone is weak today, in the short term, it is due to a weak risk sentiment in 2022 and a falling interest rate differential between Norwegian and international interest rates. In the longer term, however, a secular trend with rising energy prices will gradually strengthen the krone,” it wrote in an analysis.

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