Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Tax assessments (discontinued)
Topic: Income and consumption
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Responsible division
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Division for Income and Wage Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Number of personal taxpayers includes all those with taxable income and/or wealth to the municipality. Net wealth comprises real capital and financial capital, less any debt. Some element of wealth has been evaluated by taxable value while other elements of wealth are only included if they exceed a set non-taxable amount. Ordinary income is the total of taxable income, such as wages, entrepreneurial income, capital income, pensions and certain social security benefits, less legal income as minimum deductions, interests paid and entrepreneurial deficit. Income tax to municipality/county and community tax is calculated from ordinary income. Basis for surtax (total personal income) is a gross tax, and comprises income from labour (personal wages and calculated personal income from entrepreneurial activities) and taxable income from pensions for personal taxpayers. Capital income is not included. Surtax is calculated from this basis. The various income and wealth taxes to municipality, county and state, and National Insurance Scheme member’s contributions comprises gross amounts, subject of tax deductions and tax reductions. Assessed taxes comprise of municipal income and wealth taxes, county income tax, state income and wealth tax, member’s contributions to the National Insurance Scheme, less tax deductions and tax reductions. Gross tax is assessed taxes before tax deductions and tax reductions. Personal taxpayers include all taxpayers, who have to pay advance taxes. Non-personal taxpayers include companies with assessed taxes on income/wealth. The owners/share holders in a company, or an institution or association, must have a limited liability for the debt of the company, otherwise it is considered a personal taxpayer (and has to pay advance taxes).
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Standard classifications
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Not relevant
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Countrywide
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annually
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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The tax register as delivered by the Directorate of Taxes is stored. In addition, the final files are stored.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The purpose of the statistics is to give a survey of assessed taxes, the basis for calculating taxes and deductions and tax reductions, by taxpayergroup. The statistics is available on municipal, county and national level. The statistics is used in Statistics Norway’s tax model LOTTE, which computes changes in the tax proceeds following changes in the tax regulations. The statistics is also used for more direct calculations of the tax proceeds, on request from the Ministry of Finance. Along with the tax statistics for non-personal taxpayers and tax returns account statistics, the tax statistics for personal taxpayers are presented in a separate chapter in the national budget each year. Statistics Norway has produced annual statistics of municipal tax assessment since 1884. As of 1936 the statistics also included state tax assessment. Until the income year 1948, the source of the statistics was summary reports filled out by the tax committees in each tax district. As of 1948 Statistics Norway began obtaining information on the individual taxpayer as well. This became too comprehensive, and in the early 1950s, Statistics Norway switched to collecting a representative sample from the register of taxpayers. As of 1967 the tax statistics changed, and register-based individual tax assessment on magnetic tape became available. The tax register is one of the oldest electronic registers at Statistics Norway, and it is obtained each autumn from the Directorate of Taxes after the tax assessment is completed.
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Users and applications
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Among the most frequent users are the Ministry of Finance, municipalities and counties, various research institutes and the media.
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Coherence with other statistics
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While the tax statistics for personal taxpayers gives the basis of the different various direct taxes, the tax return statistics give more detailed information concerning the various taxable incomes. http://www.ssb.no/selvangivelse_en/ Tax statistics for personal taxpayers is presented annually in “Tax statistics for personal taxpayers. Tax settlement” http://www.ssb.no/skattoppgjor_en/ The tax statistics is the source of all statistics on assessed taxes, tax deductions and tax reductions for personal and non-personal taxpayers. These data are also included in other statistics at Statistics Norway. Tax statistics. Non-personal taxpayers http://www.ssb.no/skattepl_en/ Income and property statistics for households http://www.ssb.no/ifhus_en/ Income statistics for persons and families http://www.ssb.no/inntpf_en/ Information from the tax statistics is also incorporated in a large number of surveys, such as Survey of living conditions Health interview survey Populations and housing survey Survey of housing conditions
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Legal authority
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The Statistics Act of June 16, 1989 number 54, §3.2.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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The tax statistics for personal taxpayers is a census, and is based on the data from the ordinary tax assessment for personal and non-personal taxpayers. The unit of measurement is taxpayer groups in municipalities. The statistics covers only income and wealth that are taxed.
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Data sources and sampling
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The main source of the tax statistics for personal taxpayers is the tax register, which is collected from the Directorate of Taxes every year after the tax assessment has been finalised. The register contains data at an individual level of the calculation bases for the various direct taxes (state, county and municipal income and wealth taxes), and National Insurance Scheme member’s contributions, in addition to the various tax deductions and tax reductions. The statistics is aggregated to taxpayergroups on municipal level.
Total census.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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The tax register is obtained electronically from the Directorate of Taxes.
Several electronic checks are carried out by Statistics Norway to ensure the consistency within the data. First, amounts are moved between the items when possible to achieve consistency between tax basis and the tax amount. In some cases, if the calculation basis has deficiencies or deviates too much from a set margin of error, the basis is calculated by the size of the taxes. In the end, macro data from the tax statistics are compared with the Directorate of Taxes’ summary overview to uncover any major discrepancies. Due to the size of the data material, both with respect to the number of observations and number of variables, it is not practically possible to do all types of consistency checks at individual level. Not all variables can be checked against other statistics, as they only exist in this file from the Directorate of Taxes. Therefore, some errors and inconsistencies will not be uncovered.
No special estimation method has been used.
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant
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Comparability over time and space
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The statistics is comparable back to 1948 (see chapter 2.1). The statistics did not distinguish between personal and non-personal taxpayers before 1948. Both the basis and the principles of the statistics have changed over time. The basis of the data reflects the changes made in the tax system, and this influence the comparability of series.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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Incorrect data from the taxpayer to the Tax Authorities is a possible source of error. A person might give the wrong amount for income, wealth or deductions in their tax return or in additional forms, or they might misplace the amount. A large majority of these mistakes will be discovered and corrected by the Tax Authorities. The Tax Authorities register the information from the taxpayer manually. This is another source of error, but checks discover most of these errors. Checks are conducted to reveal lack of consistency between the taxes and their basis. It is not possible to uncover all inconsistencies on an individual level due to the extent of the data.
None. The statistics is based on a census.
None. The statistics is based on a census.
The statistics is based on a register that is collected from the Directorate of Taxes. The published statistics does not take into account later changes due to complaints or error discovered by the Tax Authorities. Changes made in the registry of the Tax Authorities after the data is submitted to Statistics Norway may give a partial sampling error, but this source of error is considered insignificant.