Deferred withholding due date narrowed to few employers to end-2027

Skatteetaten has narrowed and re-specified the scheme that lets employers defer the due date for wage withholding (forskuddstrekk) when employees work across borders. The pages now say the scheme covers only a few employersSkatteetaten, spell out that most employers do not qualifySkatteetaten, and state that applications are assessed on the employer's payment history and any unpaid claimsSkatteetaten.

An employer that is unsure how much of the withholding is payable to Norway at the time wages are paid may applySkatteetaten to move the due date to the 5th of the month after the wage paymentSkatteetaten. Skatteetaten may grant the deferred due date from the decision date through the end of 2027. The grant is assessed individually for each organisation number, and the application must document the uncertainty.

The scheme now covers only employers that normally have employees working in several countries during a month and that do not know, when paying wages, how many days each employee works in the different countries.Skatteetaten The pages state plainly that most employers do not meet the conditions and should not apply. Three groups are told not to apply: employers that pay wages in arrears, employers that can establish the Norwegian withholding duty from work schedules, shift plans or rotation schemes, and employers where the uncertainty covers fewer than 10 per cent of the employees for whom withholding is reported to NorwaySkatteetaten — the last group is expected to correct the withholding itself instead of receiving a general exceptionSkatteetaten.

When assessing applications, Skatteetaten looks at the employer's payment history and any unpaid claims. The application must contain the organisation number, contact information for the person responsible for the application, a concrete justification, an estimate of how many employees are affected and what share of the workforce they make up, plus staff lists, project contracts, employment contracts or payroll-system documentation supporting the uncertainty. Each business must file its own application with its own information; the applicant must be able to represent the business it concerns. An application may be filed through a lawyer, auditor, accountant or other representative, with a written power of attorney where the representative is none of those three professions, and statements from such advisers count only as supporting documentation.

The surrounding due-date rule is unchanged in substance and restated: from 2026, employers pay forskuddstrekk and utleggstrekk to Skatteetaten no later than the first business day after wages are paid and withholding is madeSkatteetaten, while the employer payroll tax (arbeidsgiveravgift) keeps its previous due date. The a-melding reporting follows the pay date, with the withholding sum reported per wage-payment date from the 2026-01 period.

The requirements for the withholding due dates follow from the state collection modernisation and the new collection rules applying from 2026Skatteetaten.