Moving to Norway and setting up company

[JimD]

Anyone have experience of contracting/setting up a company in Norway?

Probably relocating and would appreciate any experience or help from a business perspective.

Thanks

[m0n1k3r]

Anyone have experience of contracting/setting up a company in Norway?

Probably relocating and would appreciate any experience or help from a business perspective.

Thanks

If you intend to just do contracting then self employment is easiest and probably most beneficial. Dividends are taxed at 27% (plus corporation tax), but in order to have them taxed as dividends you would first have to take decent salary for the kind of work that you do, or else those dividends will be taxed as if they were wage income (although the company would still have to pay the corporation tax).

There might be other reasons to set up an AS (limited company) though, and you need a minimum of kr 30,000 (NOK) as the initial share capital to do so. It is easy to set up a limited company, but the procedure is different from in the UK. You would first have to set up the articles and memorandum, then go to a bank in Norway and open a bank account for the company 'under formation' and deposit the share capital there. The bank will give you a receipt of the deposit on a standard form, which you then submit to the company registrar along with all the other details and forms.

VAT registration is compulsory for turnovers above kr 50,000 (e.g. not much) and there is no flat rate scheme.