Tax evasion from Norway continues: “The government is the country’s worst enemy”

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Immigration of “tax evaders” from Norway continues. Shipowners, industrialists and technology investors or children of wealthy Norwegians: “You can count on about one tax evader a week,” says the Norwegian business magazine “Capital”.

Currently, no one expects Norwegian tax laws to be fundamentally changed as a result.

No opinion from government

Industrialist Kjartan Aas (62) shares this view. He was drawn to Andermatt UR three years ago, where he found great skiing and cycling opportunities and was “surprisingly well received”. In addition, Switzerland is wonderfully centrally located in Europe and saves a lot of money here.

She currently spends her summer holidays in Norway, but will later return to Switzerland, where she loves and socializes with other Norwegian expats. Opposite Blick, he finds clear words for the course of the Norwegian government: “In my view, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum and Economy Minister Jan Christian Vestre are Norway’s worst enemies. They are pulling capital from the private sector and going to the Norwegian state at the expense of private enterprise. They give more power.”

Aas compares current development in Norway with what happened in Sweden 20 years ago. Some colleagues are even said to have compared it to Venezuela. “Immigration is increasing and those who have moved to Switzerland are clearly doing very well – this is a problem for Norway,” says Aas. According to him, more and more people are losing respect for the Norwegian government.

Aas moved to Switzerland due to wealth tax. “If you rent detached houses in Oslo, the tax is higher than the turnover,” says Aas. But politicians don’t seem to want to change anything.

It gets tighter for the rich

On the contrary. In the 2024/2025 state budget proposal, the Norwegian government even tried to introduce a special “employer tax” for high incomes (over 750,000 kroner, the equivalent of just over 62,000 francs). However, this should no longer be taken into account in the adopted bill.

Ultimately, the inheritance tax will be abolished and no further increases in income tax are planned. In other words, it is enough that half of the income goes to the state.

As with the wealth tax, the corporate tax of 22 percent is expected to be retained. This is increased to 1.1 percent for assets over 20 million kronor (approximately 1.65 million francs). The dividend tax recently rose to 37.4 percent. Second, it caused the third richest Norwegian, Kjell Inge Røkke, to flee to Switzerland.

On the other hand, the possibility of bringing all non-taxed (ie no capital gains tax) assets from Norway into a tax haven and taking them home tax-free after five years would be gone. If there is still more tax evasion, a kind of “exit tax” will be discussed. In such a case, all earnings would have to be taxed when moving.

Andermatt advertises on its site

Norwegian business media assume that other wealthy Norwegians are sitting in packed suitcases for this reason. What Switzerland should rejoice: Andermatt already does space ads for the wealthy on the site and in the Norwegian media, as reported by Blick. Other attractive places to live in Switzerland will likely do the same.

Source :Blick