Do you need a Norwegian VAT representative?

The short answer

If your company is established in an EEA state that has an agreement with Norway on exchanging information and assisting with the collection of VAT claims, you can register directly in the Norwegian VAT register. No representative. The list of those states covers most of Europe and it is printed further down.

If your company is established somewhere without such an agreement, the United States and China being the two we are asked about most, then yes, a representative is required, and the section after the list explains what that entails for whoever agrees to be it.

And if you are a shop selling ordinary consumer goods under NOK 3,000 an item, there is a decent chance you should not be in the ordinary VAT register at all, which is the section after that.

What changed in 2017

Until then, every foreign business registering for Norwegian VAT without a permanent establishment here had to do it through a Norwegian representative. That was the rule, and an industry grew around it.

From 1 April 2017 the requirement was narrowed. Businesses established in an EEA state that Norway has a mutual assistance agreement with can register directly. The reasoning is straightforward: if Norway can already obtain information from your tax authority and get help collecting a debt from you, a local intermediary adds nothing except a fee.

The same change clarified the liability side. For businesses from those states, a representative assignment carries no joint and several liability. Which matters, because it means that even where somebody offers to be your representative anyway, the thing you would be paying them to absorb is not something they are absorbing.

The countries that are exempt

As listed in Skatteetaten’s guidance. 25 states, and if yours is among them you can register directly:

The United Kingdom is on the list, added from 1 July 2021 after its own agreement with Norway came into force. British companies are sometimes still told they need a representative because of Brexit. They do not.

One caveat worth stating rather than glossing: this list reflects the position as published, and treaty coverage is the kind of thing that changes. If your decision turns on it, check the current guidance at the link in the sources rather than trusting a page you found on the internet, including this one.

If your country is not on it

Then the requirement stands. To register for ordinary Norwegian VAT you need a representative established in Norway, and Skatteetaten needs to know who it is.

What that person does is mostly administrative: they are the Norwegian point of contact, and the returns run through them. What they carry is the interesting part.

The liability nobody mentions

For businesses from countries without a mutual assistance agreement, the representative remains jointly and severally liable for the payment of the VAT.

Read that again with a number attached. If an American or Chinese seller runs NOK 4 million of Norwegian sales through a representative and does not pay the VAT, the Norwegian tax authority can pursue the representative for the million kroner. Not pursue the seller first and the representative afterwards. Both, together.

So the market has a shape that is worth understanding before you shop in it. The businesses that need a representative are precisely the businesses whose representative is carrying real credit risk. That is why the established firms charge what they charge, and why some of them will want a deposit or a bank guarantee from you before they take the appointment.

It is also why we do not offer this. A one-person company underwriting a stranger's tax bill is not a service, it is a bet, and we would rather tell you that than take the fee and hope.

If you do need one, go to a firm large enough to carry the risk properly. Being told a low price for this particular service is not the good news it looks like.

The register most shops want

Here is the part that resolves the whole question for a lot of people who arrive at it. If you sell goods under NOK 3,000 per item to Norwegian consumers, or remotely deliverable services, you probably belong in VOEC rather than the ordinary VAT register.

VOEC requires no representative from anyone, regardless of where your company is established. The scheme is built for foreign sellers, and it does not have a local intermediary in it at all. An American shop selling NOK 800 items to Norwegian consumers does not need a representative, because it does not need ordinary MVA registration.

So the sequence to work through is: first, do I belong in VOEC? If yes, the representative question never arises. Only if the answer is no does the country list above start to matter. The VOEC and MVA guide walks through which register fits which shop, and we can handle the VOEC registration if you would rather not.

What to ask a provider

If somebody is quoting you for VAT representation, three questions sort out quickly whether the conversation is worth continuing.

Which country is my company established in, and does the requirement apply to me? A provider who answers this straight, including when the answer costs them the sale, is one worth dealing with. A provider who talks around it has told you something.

Should I be in VOEC instead? Same test. VOEC is cheaper and simpler and does not need them.

Are you jointly liable for my VAT, and how are you covering that? Where the liability applies, this is the question that separates a firm that has thought about it from one that has not read the rule it is selling against.

That is the same shape as the questions worth putting to a domain trustee, which we wrote up in how to choose a .no domain trustee, and the reasoning behind it is identical: ask a provider things whose honest answer might lose them the sale, and see what happens.

Sources

• Merverdiavgiftshåndboken, § 2-1 sjette ledd, registrering ved representant for the 2017 change, the country list, and the joint liability position.
• Merverdiavgiftsloven for the underlying law, including § 11-1 on the representative’s liability.
• Skatteetaten, Registration in the VOEC Register for the alternative most shops belong in.