Content
Published:
This is an archived release.
Corporate taxes fell [Corrected 25 January 2011]
Assessed corporate tax fell by NOK 95.4 billion or 30 per cent from 2008 to a total of NOK 218 billion in 2009.
Tax from oil companies contributed most to the decrease. Assessed income tax for oil companies fell by NOK 35 billion to NOK 59 billion and assessed special taxes by NOK 64 billion to NOK 96 billion in 2009. Paid exploration expenses amounted to NOK 9 billion. This resulted in total assessed taxes for oil companies of NOK 146 billion, which was NOK 102 billion or 41 per cent less than in 2008. [Figures above were corrected 25 January 2011]
Correction 25.01.2011The statistics are corrected owing to two arrangements introduced under the Petroleum Tax Act as from 2005. Paid exploration expenses, treated as tax deductions, are now included in the statistics. Total tax revenues from the oil sector for 2009 are as a result reduced by NOK 9 billion, as Table 1 shows. The variable paid exploration expenses is specified in Table 2, and the variable is incorporated in the statistics and the figures for the years 2005-2007 corrected in the relevant tables for 2009 and in StatBank. Read more about the corrections in own article "Correction of the statistics - paid exploration" . |
Substantial decrease for power companies
Power companies were assessed with NOK 1.7 billion or 18 per cent less tax in 2009 than in 2008. Their income tax totalled NOK 3 billion, tax for natural resources NOK 1.6 billion and tax for ground rent income NOK 4.5 billion.
Growth for land-based activities
With NOK 65 billion in assessed tax, which was an increase of 17 per cent from 2008, companies assessed under ordinary tax rules had never before been assessed more tax. They experienced growth even though those among them with losses were repaid about NOK 3 billion.
Tax deductions reduced
Tax deductions also fell in 2009. Tax deduction for tax paid to foreign country and tax deduction for tax on natural resources went down by NOK 6 billion and NOK 1 billion respectively, while deduction for received dividends and paid back tax were each reduced by NOK 150 million.
Supreme Court decision and tax for shipping companies
Tax rules for companies taxed by the special rules for limited shipping companies were changed with effect from the 2007 fiscal year. According to the transitional arrangements that were introduced, the shipping companies had, among other things to enter as income, the latent tax obligations they incurred under the previous tax regime. In February 2010, however, the Supreme Court ruled that, being at variance with the prohibition of retrospective laws, the transitional arrangements were in contravention of the constitution. The statistics on assessed income tax for shipping companies for 2007 and 2008 included the latent tax obligations and are therefore not comparable with the statistics made before 2007 and after 2008.
About the statistical basisThe statistics are based on the Directorate of Taxes’ register of non-personal tax payers and include 235 187 limited companies and other corporations that pay tax in arrears. Most of the companies are taxed according to the ordinary tax rules, but there are exceptions. Power companies are taxed according to the Taxation Act Chapter 18, while shipping companies may choose to be assessed by the special rules for shipping companies according to the Taxation Act Section 8-10 to 8-19. All companies that are engaged in oil extraction on the Norwegian continental shelf or companies that are in pipeline transport, and foreign companies that provide services on the Norwegian continental shelf are assessed under the Petroleum Tax Act. |
Tables:
Contact
-
Caroline Wang Paulsen
E-mail: caroline.paulsen@ssb.no
tel.: (+47) 40 81 14 10
-
Hieu Minh Tran
E-mail: hieu.tran@ssb.no
tel.: (+47) 46 67 66 50