State collects NOK 657 million in inheritance taxes

Total taxes assessed on inheritance and gifts amounted to NOK 657 million in 1996. The corresponding figure for 1995 was NOK 785 million. Altogether NOK 8.6 billion was transferred in the form of taxable inheritance and gifts in 1996. The transfers were distributed among 18,000 recipients of inheritances and almost 8,000 recipients of gifts.

The statistics cover only those who have received inheritance and gifts above the exempted amounts. Taxable inheritance totalled NOK 5.5 billion in 1996, of which state taxes amounted to NOK 438 million, down 28.5 per cent from the previous year.

The decline is attributed to two factors: the number of recipients of taxable inheritance was lower in 1996, and the 1995 taxes were impacted by a small number of persons who received extremely large inheritances. Transfers via taxable gifts amounted to nearly NOK 2.7 billion in 1996. Assessed taxes on gifts came to NOK 219 million, up NOK 47 million or 27 per cent from 1995.

Average inheritance NOK 312,000

The average taxable inheritance upon transfer to recipient was NOK 312,000 in 1996. The figures for 1995 were NOK 340,000. Since the statistics only cover taxable inheritance, the figure would be higher if it had included all received inheritances. For example, a person inheriting NOK 99,000 one year would not be in the statistics, while if someone inherits NOK 101,000 the entire amount would be listed. The above example presupposes that the persons have not inherited anything previously. A person who inherits NOK 30,000 would be included in the statistics if he or she previously had received over NOK 70,000 in an advance on their inheritance from the same person. Gifts from joint property and distribution from an undivided estate to a joint heir are figured as being half from each spouse (i.e. a person can inherit NOK 200,000--NOK 100,000 from each parent--without paying inheritance tax).

New Statistics
Inheritance tax statistics, 1995 and 1996.
This is the first time these statistics have been published in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. Annual release is planned. For more information, contact: erik.breivik@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 44, or jon.epland@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 37.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 36, 1998