VAT-registered non-profits must reverse-charge foreign services

A Norwegian legal person that both pursues non-profit activity and is registered in the VAT Register (Merverdiavgiftsregisteret) must account for VAT by reverse charge (snudd avregning) when it buys remotely deliverable services from a foreign provider — even where the service is acquired for use in the non-profit part of its activities.Skatteetaten That is Skattedirektoratet's conclusion in a new binding interpretation statement (uttalelse)Skatteetaten issued 1 October 2026Skatteetaten on section 11-3 of the Value Added Tax Act (merverdiavgiftsloven)Skatteetaten. The service's use then matters principally for the right of deduction, not for who accounts for the tax.Skatteetaten

Liability for VAT on remotely deliverable services bought from outside the VAT area arises under section 3-30 first paragraph where the recipient is resident in the VAT area and the service is taxable on domestic supply. Since 1 January 2023 the liability also covers non-electronic remotely deliverable services supplied to recipients other than businesses and public undertakings, so the recipient's status no longer decides whether VAT is due — but it still decides who accounts for and pays itSkatteetaten.

That allocation follows from section 11-3. Where the recipient is a business (næringsdrivende) or a public undertaking, the recipient accounts for and pays the VAT by reverse charge under the first paragraphSkatteetaten; for other recipients the foreign provider is liable under the second paragraphSkatteetaten.

The wording of section 11-3 first paragraph ties the assessment to the recipient's status as a business or public undertakingSkatteetaten, the directorate notes. It imposes no additional condition that the individual service must have been acquired for use in the business.Skatteetaten Status — who accounts — must therefore be separated from use, which governs whether and to what extent the recipient may deduct input VAT under chapter 8.Skatteetaten Registration in the VAT Register generally presupposes business activity with taxable turnover or withdrawals above the registration threshold under section 2-1, so a registered legal person will normally count as a business under section 11-3 first paragraph — even where the entity also conducts activities outside the VAT Act, such as a non-profit organisation with taxable turnover from a kiosk, advertising sales or supporter merchandise alongside its ideal activitiesSkatteetaten. That a particular acquisition serves the non-profit part does not make the entity a different kind of recipient under section 11-3.Skatteetaten

For a service used exclusively in the non-profit part, the recipient must as a rule therefore account for output VAT under section 11-3 first paragraph with no corresponding deduction under section 8-1.Skatteetaten Where a service is used both in the registered business and in other activities, the deduction must be assessed under the ordinary apportionment rules.Skatteetaten

Practical and systemic considerations support this reading. A foreign provider can normally establish whether the recipient is a legal person and whether it is VAT-registered, but can hardly know enough about the recipient's internal organisation and the concrete use of each service. Making liability turn on actual use would be hard to administer and could produce both double taxation and missing VAT. The recipient is best placed to assess use and the associated deduction — so the registered recipient handles the tax by reverse charge while use is handled through the chapter 8 deduction rules, giving foreign providers predictability and equal treatment of purchases from Norwegian and foreign suppliers.

Legal basis: Skattedirektoratet uttalelse of 1 October 2026 on merverdiavgiftsloven § 11-3, applying §§ 3-30, 11-3, 2-1 and chapter 8.