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The benefits of checking your tax card in Norway right away

Robin-Ivan Capar
Robin-Ivan Capar - [email protected]
The benefits of checking your tax card in Norway right away
If you have a lot of debt, small adjustments to your tax card can free up thousands of kroner a month. Screengrab: Norwegian Tax Administration

Norway's Tax Administration made tax cards for 2023 available on Thursday. The tax authority recommends people check the information on their cards to avoid paying too much tax.

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As of Thursday, December 15th, people in Norway are able to access their tax cards on the Tax Administration's website, here.

After you access your tax page, you will be able to see the estimate of taxes that you will have to pay in 2023 based on the Norwegian Tax Administration's calculations.

Marta Johanne Gjengedal, divisional director at the Norwegian Tax Administration, asks people to take a second look at their tax cards.

"We make an estimate of what the individual will earn during 2023, how their most important deductions will change, and calculate the tax based on this information. But it is important to know that we base these calculations on figures from 2021 and that the tax card you receive now is not necessarily conclusive…

"If you have financial challenges, having correct tax deductions is the most important thing you can do. Then you know what money you have at your disposal," Gjengedal told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).

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Why you should double-check your tax card for 2023

Gjengedal recommends people check and, if necessary, change their tax cards right away, before the New Year, so that they can get the full effect of the changes as early as their first salary or pension payment in January.

"There have been such big changes in 2022 that we probably weren't able to account for them in our calculations," she noted.

Norway's central bank (Norges Bank) raised its key interest rate to 2.75 percent on Thursday, but the actual interest that your bank charges you will be even higher than that.

That means you will have to pay even more to banks for the money they lent you. As most people in Norway get a floating interest rate on their home loan, they can expect a rate of between 4 and 5 percent after the New Year.

That is where your tax card comes into play. As the interest rate will likely be more than twice as high as the last time you (likely) adjusted your tax card, you can also claim more interest deductions.

If you have a lot of debt, minor adjustments to your tax card can free up thousands of kroner a month.

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An example based on a 3 million kroner loan

As NRK points out, in Norway, you get 22 percent of what you pay in interest back.

You can already calculate the sum you will pay in interest in 2023 and enter it into your tax card.

If you have a loan of, for example, 3 million kroner and an interest rate of 4.5 percent, you will pay some 135,000 kroner in interest in one year.

That means that you can get 2,475 kroner on your tax back every month, the national broadcaster notes.

If you don't make the adjustment now, you will have to wait to get your money back in the tax settlement in a year and a half.

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