The government has proposed several important changes to business taxation in the 2025 national budget. Among the key proposals is removing the additional employer’s national insurance contributions on salaries above NOK 850,000, effective January 1, 2025. This aligns with previous government announcements and aims to ease the burden on employers. At the same time, the government has proposed expanding the stock option scheme for startups and growth companies, allowing more companies to benefit from favorable tax rules. Furthermore, despite earlier indications, no new rules for taxing private consumption within companies have been proposed. Let’s take a closer look at the key changes.
Removal of Additional Employer’s National Insurance Contribution
On January 1, 2023, the government introduced a temporary 5% additional employer’s national insurance contribution on salaries over NOK 750,000, which was raised to NOK 850,000 in 2024. Now, as previously announced, the government proposes to remove this extra contribution as of January 1, 2025.
Changes to the Conditions for Stock Options in Startups and Growth Companies
The government also proposed changes to the conditions of special stock option schemes for employees in startups or growth companies. This scheme, first introduced in 2018, allows stock options in these companies to be taxed as capital income upon the sale of shares under certain conditions. The rules apply to companies with up to 50 employees, a balance sheet totaling up to NOK 80 million, and those under ten years old. The proposal is to expand this to companies with up to 150 employees, a balance sheet total of up to NOK 200 million, and a company age limit of 12 years. This expansion will allow more companies to benefit from favorable tax rules for stock options while reducing the competitive advantage previously enjoyed by smaller companies.
“Monster Tax" Shelved
In the 2024 national budget, the government indicated the proposal and implementation of new tax rules for private consumption within companies in the 2025 budget.
However, after further review, these targeted tax rules for private consumption within companies have not been included in this year’s budget. Therefore, the 2025 budget does not introduce new tax rules related to private consumption within companies.
This does not change the existing tax and reporting obligations for such private consumption under current rules.
For clarity, the Ministry's statements do not rule out the possibility that such tax rules could be implemented later, but for now, this is not being pursued.
Changes for Specific Industries
In addition, there are some proposed changes for specific industries, including:
- Adjustments to the Supplementary Tax Act should be made to fully align with the model regulations and better harmonize the law and its supplementary regulation.
- Increasing the natural resource tax for hydropower plants from 1.30 øre/kWh to 1.34 øre/kWh.
- Increasing the number of payment periods for petroleum tax from six to ten, to make the system more resilient to fluctuations in petroleum prices and higher prices.
- Introducing tax liability for health enterprises on income from the sale of NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing) to remove the financial advantage they would otherwise have by offering NIPT without taxation.
Since the government does not have a majority in Parliament, negotiations with the Socialist Left Party (SV) will be necessary before the budget can be approved in time for the Christmas Holidays.
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