Norskregistrert utenlandsk foretak, which nobody says in full. It is not a new company. It is your company, given a Norwegian registration and a Norwegian organisation number, while remaining the same legal entity it was before.
What a NUF is
The distinction that matters: an AS is a new Norwegian limited company, with its own share capital and its own balance sheet. A NUF is a branch. Your German GmbH or your British limited company is still the entity; Norway simply registers that it operates here and issues a number for it.
That makes it far lighter than incorporating. There is no equity requirement, so no capital to lock up. There is no requirement for a Norwegian shareholder or a Norwegian director. It is a registration, not a formation.
What the organisation number then gets you is most of what a foreign company keeps hitting walls on. Vipps at your checkout, which requires a Norwegian organisation number for the main entity. Ordinary MVA registration. And, if you have been using our trustee service, the ability to hold your .no domain in your own name rather than ours.
Who this is for
This is for you if
- You want Vipps at your checkout, and have found out it needs a Norwegian organisation number.
- You have outgrown a trustee arrangement for your domain and want the registration in your own name.
- Your Norwegian sales are big enough that ordinary MVA registration beats the VOEC scheme.
- A Norwegian customer or partner has asked for an organisation number before they will contract with you.
Do not buy this if
- You only want a .no domain. A domain does not need a NUF, and the trustee service is a fraction of the cost.
- You are below the VAT threshold and just selling a few parcels. A NUF brings obligations you do not need yet.
- You want a Norwegian entity with no ongoing accounting. A commercially active NUF has an accounting obligation and files annual accounts.
- You want us to be the contact person or sit on anything. We will not, and the reason is further down this page.
The d-number problem
Here is the part that stalls almost every NUF registration, and the reason this service is worth paying for rather than doing from a form.
The branch must have a designated contact person. That person does not have to live in Norway, which surprises people and is good news. But they must have a Norwegian national identity number or a d-number, which is the identifier Norway issues to people who have dealings here without residing here.
If nobody connected to your company has one, that becomes its own application, and it is the slow part. It is also where most of our work goes. Everything else in a NUF registration is paperwork with a known shape; the d-number is chasing, following up and knowing what the rejection letters mean.
So the first question we will ask you is whether anyone in your company already holds one. If the answer is yes, this is a three-week job. If it is no, plan for six to eight.
What we do
- 01
Work out whether you want a NUF at all
Against an AS, and against staying as you are. This is a real question and for a fair number of enquiries the answer is that you do not need one yet.
- 02
Tell you exactly which documents you need
Certificate of incorporation, articles, a board resolution, translated and certified into Norwegian or English. Precisely what, in what form, so you do not pay a translator twice.
- 03
Sort the contact person
Confirm the d-number or national ID, or run the d-number application if there is not one. This is the long pole and we handle it.
- 04
File with Brønnøysund
The Samordnet registermelding, submitted digitally, which is both faster and cheaper than filing on paper.
- 05
Hand you the number
Along with what to do next: MVA registration if you need it, the Vipps application, and moving your .no domain into your own name if we are currently holding it.
What it costs
- Our feeEnquire
- Fixed before we start, once we know whether the contact person already holds a d-number or a Norwegian ID. Running the d-number application from scratch, chasing it and reading the rejection letters is the work that adds to it, and we quote the whole thing before you commit.
- Registry feeNOK 3,883 (about $420)
- Brønnøysund's own fee for digital registration in both the Central Coordinating Register and the Register of Business Enterprises. Passed through at cost, and it is their charge, not ours.
- Translation and certificationVaries
- Paid by you, directly to whoever does it. We tell you what needs translating so you are not paying for pages nobody asked for.
The registry fee is public and you can check it yourself. Anyone quoting you a single bundled figure without separating their fee from Brønnøysund’s is worth a question about which is which.
What you take on
A NUF is not free of consequences and you should know them before rather than after. A NUF carrying on commercial activity in Norway and taxable here has an accounting obligation and must submit annual accounts. Above NOK 7 million in operating revenue or NOK 27 million in total assets, it needs an auditor.
Practically, that means you will need a Norwegian accountant. Not us, and we will say more about why in a moment. If your Norwegian business is small, the honest comparison is between the ongoing accounting cost of a NUF and the simplicity of staying on VOEC with a trustee holding your domain. For a lot of shops the second is still the better deal, and we will tell you if we think you are one of them.
What we will not do
We will not be your contact person, and we will not sit on anything. Acting as a director, manager or equivalent for someone else’s company is a licensed activity in Norway under the anti-money-laundering act, requiring authorisation from Finanstilsynet. We do not hold it. Neither, in all likelihood, does anyone offering to do it for you cheaply.
We will also not do your bookkeeping. Once your NUF is trading it has a Norwegian accounting obligation, and performing that obligation for someone else is regulated work reserved to authorised accountants. We register the branch and then hand you to somebody qualified to keep its books.
This is the same line we hold everywhere else. The services page lists the other two things we get asked for and refuse.
Where the rules are
Check it yourself
Brønnøysund on Norwegian-registered foreign business (NUF) covers who must register, the accounting obligation, and the audit thresholds of NOK 7 million in operating revenue and NOK 27 million in total assets.
Brønnøysund’s fee schedule is where the NOK 3,883 digital registration fee above comes from, alongside the higher figure for filing on paper.
If you are weighing this against simply staying where you are, the VOEC and MVA guide sets out the tax side of the same decision.
Tell us about the parent company
Where it is registered, what it does, and whether anyone connected to it already holds a Norwegian d-number or national ID. That last answer decides whether this takes three weeks or eight.