The Tax Authority
It’s quite easy for a Dane to move to Norway to work. You don’t need a residence or work permit, and a joint taxation rule prevents you from being taxed in both countries.
So, before I came up here on 1 February, I hadn’t really done anything other than what I usually do when I’ve been up here on a business trip – that is, booked a flight and a hotel for the first month.
My bank has indeed been in the process of setting up a Norwegian bank account, complete with the associated ‘D-number’, but I’m not entirely sure at the moment how far along that process is.
However, if you plan to stay in the country for more than six months, you must report your arrival to the Norwegian Tax Administration, which is responsible for the Norwegian National Population Register. The Nordic Council has written an excellent page w on the subject.
iIn Oslo, registration takes place at Skatt Øst, which is just a stone’s throw from the Central Station. You must provide proof that you have somewhere to live and a job, and then fill in a couple of forms.
Once your registration has been approved, you’ll be issued with a Norwegian Personal Identification Number, and you’ll typically be entitled to the ‘social package’ in Norway (I don’t think this includes a share of the Oil Fund, but I’ll write about that later if it turns out to be the case).
You also need a tax card (which can be obtained using just your D-number), which is used to inform your employer of various tax deductions. I’m still trying to get to grips with the Norwegian tax system; for example, it seems that tax is collected over a period of 10.5 months, so there are larger payments in June and December (half the tax). However, the total tax paid for the year corresponds to the withholding rate, so it’s essentially a form of savings scheme.
A funny detail on the tax card application was that you had to specify whether you’d be working onshore or offshore :-)
Although there was a bit of a wait, the application went smoothly, and the case worker, whose name was Nicoline, was friendly and helpful. It dawned on me that I had no idea what my address was, apart from the street (which I’d even spelt wrong), the number and the floor. All flats have a code consisting of Hxxyy, where xx is the floor and yy is the door number if you’re standing at the entrance and walking round to the left. I won’t try to describe the layout of where I live here, but it wasn’t straightforward to work out…
Although everything seems to be able to be done digitally (provided you have a so-called BankID – I’m sure there’ll be a story about that too once I get one), your P-number itself has to be sent by post. So now there’s also a name on a postbox down by the entrance. Apparently, there’s no correlation between the postboxes and the physical location of the flats, so it’ll be interesting to see if I get any post…