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💰 No Norwegian wealth tax for foreign owners
Norway’s wealth tax (formuesskatt) only hits people who live in Norway. As a foreign-resident owner, your shares and working capital are exempt.
Norway’s wealth tax (formuesskatt) — including the much-discussed tax on working capital (arbeidende kapital) — only applies to people who are tax-resident in Norway. If you own your Norwegian company from abroad, you are fully exempt.
Norwegian-resident owner
- Wealth tax of 1.0% on net wealth up to NOK 20.7M, 1.1% above.
- The tax applies even when the company makes a loss.
- ~NOK 21 billion collected in 2025 — 62% from business assets.
- Combined with dividend tax, the effective rate can exceed 100% of returns in bad years.
Foreign-resident owner
- No wealth tax on shares, business assets, or working capital.
- No inheritance or gift tax (abolished in 2014).
- Corporate tax is only 22% — competitive in Europe.
- More capital stays inside the company, ready to be reinvested.
Norway is the only Nordic country that still taxes wealth on business assets. Denmark removed it in 1997, Finland in 2006, and Sweden in 2007.
“Today it is more profitable to own a Norwegian company from abroad than to live in the municipality where the company is located.” — NHO, Norway’s largest employers’ organisation.
Sources: NHO — Formuesskatt, PwC Tax Summaries — Norway.
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