Basis for employers’ National Insurance contributions

Employers are all business’ or persons who have paid contributions to employer’s National Insurance.

Basis for employer's National Insurance contributions is the collected sum of all taxable wages or other compensation, of which employer's contributions to the National Insurance is calculated. National Insurance contributions are calculated on the basis of all cash benefits, various fringe benefits and some pension obligations.

The basis for employer's National Insurance contributions can be decomposed to:

• Wages and other compensations
• Grants and pension premiums
• Reimbursement of sick pay
• Basis for wage totals

From year 2023, the collected basis used to calculate additional National insurance contributions is included and added to the basis for employer’s National insurance contributions.

Wages and other compensations includes all taxable wages and compensations for labour given to an employee from an employer. (The normal basis for calculation of employer's National insurance contributions). The employer's additional NIC must be calculated on the same basis as the basis for ordinary employer's NIC. This results in parts of the same basis being reported more than once, more specifically the amount of taxable salary benefits exceeding the threshold amount for the legal year. For details and examples of reporting additional NIC, see The Norwegian Tax Administration's a-melding guide.

Grants and pension premiums includes all taxable grants and premiums for pension schemes minus deductables which the employee has been withdrawn (Pension contributions and premiums subject to National Insurance contributions).

Reimbursement of sick pay includes the reimbursement of sick pay from the Norwegian labour and welfare administration which employer will receive. This is deducted from the basis for calculating the employer's contribution to the National Insurance. (The basis for reimbursement of National Insurance contributions).

Basis for wage totals includes wages and other compensations less reimbursement of sick pay

Total basis for employer’s additional National insurance contributions is the collected sum of all taxable wages when the total taxable salary benefits for an income recipient exceed the set threshold amount given by the regulation entering into force on 1 January 2023. For 2023 the threshold amount was 750 000 NOK. For 2024 the threshold is 850 000 NOK. See more information about the additional National insurance contributions on the Norwegian Tax Administration's website.

Enterprises experiencing financial difficulties. From year 2023, enterprises that are considered to be in financial difficulties must generally apply the highest rate (14.1%) in all zones. However, enterprises in financial difficulties can still receive de minimis aid in the form of an annual tax-free amount. For more details, see The Norwegian Tax Administration's websites.

Calculated employer's National Insurance contribution is the conrtribution paid by the employer for employees to the National Insurance scheme. This is calculated as a percentage of employer's contributions to National Insurance. Employer's contributions to the National Insurance are differentiated, so that the rate used is dependent on both industry and geografical location.

Financial activity tax applies to all employers in the financial sector, and it is an extra payroll tax of 5 percent.

Enterprises without employees will not be subject to the financial activity tax, neither on salary nor on profit. Companies that perform investment activities, including passive capital investments in shares etc., with at least one employee, may be subject to the financial activity tax, provided that salary linked to the financial sector activity exceeds 30 percent of the company's total salary expenses.

There are two exemptions and one limitation to the financial activity tax.

• There’s an exemption from financial activity tax liability for enterprises where the salary expenses linked to the employer's financial activities do not exceed 30 percent of the enterprise's total declarable salary expenses.
• There’s an exemption from tax liability for enterprises where the salary expenses linked to VATable financial activity exceed 70 percent of the enterprise's total declarable salary costs linked to financial activities.
• Enterprises that engage in non-economic activity, as defined in EEA law, may limit the tax basis for the financial activity tax on salary to that proportion of the salary expenses linked to economic activity.

For enterprises liable to financial activity tax in accordance with the above criteria, the financial activity tax is assessed on the basis of the enterprise's total salary expenses etc., that are liable to employer's national insurance contributions.

See more information at skatteetaten.no.

Method of calculating employer's National Insurance contributions. There are differnet rules and regulations for which rate and tax-free amount is applicable. One employer can have business' within several different industries. The following categories apply for reporting basis for National Insurance contributions by employers:

• General provision (previous specific code AA)
• Part of central government and health trusts (previous specific code BB)
• Industries excluded from differentiated employer's national insurance contributions (previous specific code CC)
• Road freight transport (previous specific code GG)
• Agriculture and horticulture (previous specific code DD)

Tax withheld (prepayment deductions) is the tax the employer deduct from salaries and fees at the time the salary or the fee is paid to the employee. As an employer, you are obliged to deduct withholding tax from the salary you pay to employees, and how much should be deducted in tax (advance tax) is specified on the tax card for the employee. Special rules apply if you qualify for the simplified regulations for private employers, these prepayment deductions are included.

Sector. This statistic is split down to private and public sector. Public sector includes state and social security administration, municipalities and counties. Private sector is here defined as all employers except public sector. Public enterprises are included in private sector.

Municipality. The statistics for basis for wage totals is split down to municipality level, based on the tax accounts of the Directorate of taxes, as well as information from The Register of Employers and Employees and The Register of End of the Year Certificates (Register of Wage Sums).

Zone for employer's National Insurance contributions

The employer's contributions to the National Insurance scheme are differentiated by goegraphical location of the workplace.

The employer is obliged to pay a certain rate in per cent of the basis of employer's tax for the individual employee following the employee's tax municipal.

For a more detailed spesification of which local municipalities which belong to the different zones see database for Standard Classifications and Classification of zones of employer's contribution to the National Insurance in KLASS.

Name: Basis for employers’ National Insurance contributions
Topic: Labour market and earnings

Division for Structural Business Statistics

National level, sector and zones for employers National Insurance contributions. Basis for wage totals data is also presented on a municipality level.

The monthly statistics on national level and by sector.

Annually and monthly.

The annual statistics is released within five months of previous end of year, the monthly statistics about three weeks after end of previous month.

Calculated employer's National insurance contributions (NIC) from public enterprises with simplified settlement about seven weeks after end of statistical month.

None

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The statistic shows employer’s National Insurance contributions and the basis for employer’s National Insurance contributions by different distinctions. The purpose is to show the effect of rules and regulations for the calculation of employer’s contributions to the National Insurance. The statistic was first published in 2010, where figures start from 2007.

In April 2020 a monthly version was established to show changes in total amounts monthly.

From June 2023 was total basis for employer's National insurance contributions, calculated employer's National insurance contributions (NIC), payment in cash and tax withheld from public enterprises with simplified settlement presented in table 13966 in the StatBank.

Total basis for employer's National insurance contributions is derived from the reported calculated employer's National insurance contributions, by the highest zone for employer's National Insurance contributions, equal to zone 1 with 14.1 per cent.

At the same time was table 12940 updated with figures excluded these values.

The statistics is, amongst others, used by various government departments, research institutes and the national accounts.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The statistic can be seen in context with "Tax Accounts Statistics", National accounts, Wage statistics and Labour costs

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

None

The statistic includes all business’ that have reported costs subject to employer’s National Insurance contributions.

Calculated employer contributions for civil servants are not included, but presented in a table 13966. These contributions are calculated by the highest zone for employer's National Insurance contributions, equal to zone 1 with 14.1 per cent.

Until 2015:

The statistic is based on data from the tax accounts of the Directorate of taxes, as well as information from Statistics Norway’s Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises and The Register of End of the Year Certificates (Register of Wage Sums).

From 2015:

The statistic is based on data from the a-meldingen. More about a-meldingen here: https://www.altinn.no/en/a-ordningen/

The data from a-meldingen are merged with the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises.

The data source for the figures on public enterprises with simplified settlement of NIC is The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ). See "Other websites". Payment in cash and tax withheld from public enterprises is based on data from the a-meldingen.

Total sensus.

Until 2015 data was collected electronically from the Directorate of taxes. From 2015 data is collected from a-meldingen.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

Controll and editing of the data is completed in several stages, where the majority of operations are automatic. The employer does the first control and check of data before the figures are reported to the tax collector. The tax collector then controls the data further. Statistics Norway does a final editing by controlling consistency in the material and comparing to previous years and other published statistics.

None

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

This statistic is comparable with published figures for the calendar back to and including 2007. For data on municipality level, the statistics is presented with data dating back to and including 2011.

From 2015 the statistics are based on data from the “a-meldingen”. This data source did not have detailed information about municipalities for 2015, hence the figures on basis for wage totals was not published for 2015.

In March 2020 the economy was hard hit by the covid19-crisis, which might affect the comparability.

A possible source of error is incorrect information from the employer to the Directorate of Taxes. This is an error in the original delivered report or a correction notification incorrectly filled in. These might be non-relevant errors for the Directorate of taxes, but might create problems for the statistic. One example of one of these errors is the use of employer's identification number instead of enterprise's identification number. Further more, incorrect information on zone might occur. For data on municipality level, these errors will be corrected.

Another source of error might occur while merging the register with the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, adding information on institutional codes and industry. This might generate errors because the merging is dependent on three different registers, and accomplishing good quality is dependent on the initial quality of the original three registers as well as correct value for the variable by which the merging is done.

In the guidelines and rules of the Directorate of taxes, the guidelines of the Directorate signals a focus on zone rather than municipality with respect to employers calculation of employers’ National Insurance contributions, leading to a source of error and uncertainty with respect to data presented on a municipality level.

From March 2020 the delivered reports from the employers might be affected of the governmental schemes due to covid19-crisis

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

Revisions in previously published seasonally adjusted figures can take place when new observations (or revised previous observations) are included in the basis of calculation. The scope of the revision is usually greatest in the most relevant part (last 1–2 years) of seasonally adjusted time series. A corresponding revision in trends is also typical, particularly at the end of the time series. The extent of the revision of trends and seasonally adjusted figures is partly determined by the revision policy, see Section 4 of the European Statistical System (ESS) Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment on the Eurostat website. For more information on the revision of seasonally adjusted figures, see the ‘About seasonal adjustment’ section in the relevant statistics.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

Checks for extreme values.

For the monthly statistics all months from January in the previous year will be updated with corrections in the delivered reports.