Even the most conscientious taxpayer can forget to inform the Norwegian Tax Administration about their wealth or income during the year. This is perhaps especially true when many rely completely on the pre-filled information that appears on their draft tax return. It is not uncommon for assets or income from abroad not to be stated in the draft, and for this information to be forgotten.
For this reason, we in Norway have had the opportunity to contact the Norwegian Tax Administration to correct previously submitted tax returns so that the correct tax is paid to the state. If you discover an error, you can freely change the tax return for the last 3 tax years, a so-called "Own change" (“Egenendring” in Norwegian). However, if the error goes back further than the last three years, you can also contact the Norwegian Tax Administration and correct up to 10 years back in time. This is called "Voluntary Correction" (“Frivillig retting” in Norwegian).
The advantage of voluntary correction is that you avoid additional tax on evaded tax. If the Tax Administration itself discovers the error, you will most likely have to pay additional tax of between 20 percent and 60 percent.
On October 9, 2024, the Ministry of Finance published a consultation proposal to remove the voluntary rectification institute. The proposal is still under consideration. This has aroused strong reactions and has been heavily criticized. The reason for this is that the voluntary rectification institute has worked very well for many years and has contributed to many people disclosing their assets and income and thus contributing tax money to the treasury. The risk of removing the voluntary rectification institute is that many people will no longer dare to disclose this information. In our opinion, it is not impossible that the Støre government in its draft state budget for 2026 wants to remove the opportunity to request voluntary rectification.
The government will present its proposal for the state budget on October 15, 2025, at 10:00. Based on previous experience, such as with the Exit tax, the announced changes have had immediate effect from the day they are announced. We fear this may also happen if they want to remove the voluntary rectification institute.
In short, this means that a taxpayer who wants to submit complete information for previous years may be penalized with additional tax on undeclared income and wealth from October 15 at 10:01.
There is no guarantee that the right to voluntary correction will be removed on October 15, but if you have forgotten to inform the Norwegian Tax Administration about income or assets that are older than 3 years, we recommend that you address this as soon as possible.
We assist a number of people with requests for voluntary correction and to apply for a tax amnesty. If you need help correcting previously submitted tax returns, you can contact us for a non-binding conversation.