Dummies guide to skattekort (tax card) for foreigners

Skattekort (tax card) guide for all seasons edition

Bookmark this page if you're a newbie to Norway, it's that important and will save you thousands literally.  Read on to get free karma points!!  And it's a very wise decision to follow this blog.

In Norway there are two simple things you have to do every year, fill out your tax card (i.e. what you're reading now) and then do a tax return when the time comes.  Rinse and repeat.  This post is step one.

Note that this post does not constitute tax advice.  Everyone's situation is different.  This post is based on my own personal situation.  If you're married/with kids/divorced/illegal alien/own a house/living with someone or something like that, you're not me, and if you follow this and get into trouble, you only have yourself to blame.

Ho ho ho, I've come to steal!

Every year once a year during Christmas time, us slaves under the government, I mean, citizens of the country Norway get a lovely "gift" from Skatteetaten or the tax (thieves) administration of Norway, a skattekort, or tax card.  In it you'll find their estimation of what you'll be earning the following year, it includes deductions and other miscellaneous items that workers have to indicate so that they get less taken (stolen) away from the great wonderful government of Norway.  If you're a newbie in Norway, most likely you'll just see one thing, "minstefradrag" which is a minimum deduction based on your income level, the pennies and scraps that every serf is entitled to.  And if you're a newbie to Norway and you only see that it means you're getting even more ripped off by the government.  Or perhaps you feel generous and you're willing to contribute more to the stay home bums, the jobless, other welfare personnel, and line the pockets of useless politicians be my guest, and stop reading this post.  For the rest who want to get less stolen away from us, what you have to do is request for a new tax card.  Every year.  For the next two years.

What you want is to indicate the standard deduction for foreign workers which can come up to 10% of your salary or a maximum of 40000 nok, that's 7131 US, 5417 Euros or 6759 Australian dollars.  You're entitled to this deduction for your first two years staying of in Norway.  And this will never be entered into your form, you slave, so better do your homework and listen.

First you're going to have to log into the thieves administration website, that's available here.  Once you've done that, click on "Endre skattekortet" (change the tax card), then click on "Endre skattekort/forskuddsskatt elektronisk" and log in using your minID, or whichever ID you use.

Now you'll see the actual form where you get to indicate your deductions.

On the top left of the same page you'll see your name (hopefully, and not Bjørn hussein of Grønland) and your personal number.  In Section 2.1.1, indicate the amount that you will be earning in 2013.  It does not have to be exact, but should be as close to what you think you will earn in 2013.

Next scroll down to Section 3.3.7, here is where you want to indicate the standard deduction, 10% of your salary up to a maximum of 40,000.  In my example, 10% would be 30,000.  More information available here.

You're almost done.  At the bottom of the page you have to indicate the type of deduction, so just enter "Standardfradrag for utenlandsk arbeidstaker" and proceed.

You should now come to a summary page showing you your deductions, and income for 2013.

The parts which are important are highlighted in red.  And pretty much self explanatory.  Now just hit "bestill", and wait for a few days for your new tax card to arrive in the mail.

Bonus!! To get good karma points!!

Good karma for you sir/ma'am!

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And now you're done!  Simple?  Further down the line, you're going to have to do a tax return.

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