Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Basis for employers’ National Insurance contributions
Topic: Labour market and earnings
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Next release
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Responsible division
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Division for Structural Business Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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
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).
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premiums includes all taxable grants and premiums for pension schemes minus deductables which the employee has been withdrawn (Pension contributions and premiums subject to National Insurance contributions).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
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.
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)
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).
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Standard classifications
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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
Administrative information
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Regional level
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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.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annually and monthly.
The annual statistics is released within five months of previous end of year, the monthly statistics about four weeks after end of previous month.
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International reporting
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None
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Microdata
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The final file from which the statistics are calculated are maintained and saved.
Background
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Background and purpose
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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.
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Users and applications
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The statistics is, amongst others, used by various government departments, research institutes and the national accounts.
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Equal treatment of users
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No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.
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Coherence with other statistics
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The statistic can be seen in context with "Tax Accounts Statistics", National accounts, Wage statistics and Labour costs
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Legal authority
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Statistics Act §2-1, §3-2 and §3-3 see http://www.ssb.no/english/about_ssb/
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EEA reference
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None
Production
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Population
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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.
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Data sources and sampling
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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,
Total sensus.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Until 2015 data was collected electronically from the Directorate of taxes. From 2015 data is collected from a-meldingen.
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.
Not relevant.
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Seasonal adjustment
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No
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant.
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Comparability over time and space
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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.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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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
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Revision
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For the monthly statistics all months from January in the previous year will be updated with corrections in the delivered reports.
Additional information
Employers’ contributions to National Insurance are divided into different rates by region.