Income and deductions for companies, 2004

Total assessable income was NOK 225 billion and consisted mainly of entrepreneurial income and received intra-group contribution, which were respectively 71 percent and 29 percent. Total assessable income was down by NOK 43 billion from the year before, mainly because of changes in tax rule regulations. New rules for taxation of income from shares took effect from the fiscal year 2004. Dividends and gains on shares are now tax free for corporate shareholders, and loss from realisation of shares no longer gives tax relief. In addition, interests are no longer extracted from the entrepreneurial income in the tax return, affecting the comparability with statistics from previous years.

Deductions in income

In addition to taxable deficits from previous years deductions in income consisted mainly of entrepreneurial deficit and paid intra-group contributions. Entrepreneurial deficit was NOK 59 billion, while paid intra-group contribution further reduced income by NOK 60 billion.

Still many without any taxable income

Nearly half of the limited companies did not have any taxable income in 2004, i.e. their ordinary income was negative or nil. This is about the same share as previous years. Negative ordinary income was NOK 37 billion; a reduction of 35 percent or NOK 19.5 billion from the year before. Positive ordinary income or taxable income decreased by 3.3 percent or NOK 3.5 billion from 2003 to 2004, and ended up at NOK 102 billion. Thus, total ordinary income amounted to NOK 66 billion.

Positive total calculated personal income

Positive personal income increased by 40 percent to NOK 9.8 billion from the previous year, while negative personal income was reduced by 25 percent to NOK 7.6 billion. Total calculated personal income was positive in 2004, after having been negative for several years. It amounted to NOK 2.3 billion, which was as much as NOK 5.3 billion higher than in 2003. The share of active owners with positive personal income was 35 percent. Due to new tax regulations the fiscal year 2004 is the last year for which personal income for active owners in limited companies is calculated.

About the statistics basis

The statistics is based on assessment data from a sample of 114 878 limited companies. The population consists of 148 578 limited companies, but does not include companies in financial industries, extraction of oil and natural gas, shipping companies and production and distribution of electricity. For more information about the statistics basis, see About the statistics .

Tables:

• Table 1 Tax return account for limited companies. 2003 and 2004. NOK million
• Table 2 Fiscal value and depreciation for limited companies, by depreciation groups. 2004. NOK million
• Table 3 Calculated personal income for active owners in limited companies. 2003 and 2004. NOK million