Guide to declaring crypto taxes in Norway (2022)
Find out how to calculate and declare cryptocurrency taxes in Norway.
Nov. 24, 2022, 5:49 p.m.
This article aims to serve as a complete guide on how to calculate and pay taxes on cryptocurrency (for example Bitcoin and Ethereum) for individuals in Norway. Whether it’s your first time declaring taxes on cryptocurrencies or you are an experienced crypto evangelist, you should find this guide useful. In this guide we will be covering:
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Important Dates
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How cryptocurrencies are taxed
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Detailed information about different transaction types
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How to submit your tax report to Skatteetaten
This guide will be updated and maintained on a regular basis to account for changes made by the local tax authority (Skatteetaten) and for new types of transactions. In the event that you find any errors or outdated information, it is greatly appreciated that you let us know by sending an email to support@divly.com or via our support chat at the bottom right corner of our website.
Any tax-related information provided by us is not tax advice, financial advice, accounting advice or legal advice and cannot be used by you or any other party for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties. You should seek the advice of a tax professional regarding your particular circumstances. We make no claims, promises, or warranties about the accuracy of the information provided herein. Everything included herein is our opinion and not a statement of fact.
Important dates 2022
18-31 March 2022 - You’ll receive a notification to your email regarding your tax return.
30 April 2022 - The deadline for updating and submitting your tax return.
How cryptocurrencies are taxed in Norway
In Norway, your crypto holdings above NOK 1,500,000 are subject to a wealth tax of 0.7%. Any gains on cryptocurrency transactions are also subject to a capital gains tax of 22%. For income earned in crypto, you have to pay an income tax of 22% as well as a bracket tax.
Wealth Tax (Formuesskatt)
In Norway, your net wealth at the turn of the year determines the amount of wealth tax you have to pay to your municipality and the state.
Calculating wealth tax The wealth tax is based on your net wealth, so assets minus debt. The wealth tax rate that applies to your situation is dependent on your wealth and tax class (Skatteklasse). All personal taxpayers are placed in Tax Class 1. There are different tax brackets for your municipality and the state. In 2021 they are as follows.
Wealth Tax to the Municipality
Wealth Tax to the State
These thresholds for both the wealth tax to the municipality and to the state are for single taxpayers. For spouses assessed jointly on their joint wealth, the thresholds are twice the values reported above.
In general, this implies tax-free assets of NOK 1,500,000 with anything above that being taxed at 0.85%.
Wealth in the form of cryptocurrency must be declared on your tax returns. You’ll have to trace back the value of each of your holdings to the turn of the year. This is made more difficult if you’ve made a number of trades since and have to find out exactly what you held at the start of the new year.
Submitting wealth tax: You can read more about how to submit taxes at the end of the guide.
Income Tax (Inntektsskatt)
If you have earned crypto for some form of work or effort then you need to pay typical income taxes, just as you would have if you were paid in your local currency. You'll be liable for tax on your salary and other income, including interest income.
If you decide to keep the cryptocurrency that you received, then you will need to pay capital gains taxes on any profits or losses that are incurred when you sell them. The cost basis in this case would be equivalent to the amount you declared in your income tax return.
The income tax rate is 22% which is levied on your income after any applicable deductions.
You may also have to pay a bracket tax which is levied on personal income which primarily consists of your salary, but can also include disability benefits, sick pay, and pensions. For more info on the bracket, tax see here.
Submitting income tax: You can read more about how to submit taxes at the end of the guide.
Capital Gains Tax (Kapitalgevinst)
Any form of the sale of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies must be reported as a capital gain. We will talk through the long list of detailed scenarios that involve capital gains tax, but in essence, expect to declare and pay capital gains tax on your cryptocurrencies if you have:
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Sold cryptocurrency.
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Exchanged a cryptocurrency for one or more other types of cryptocurrencies.
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Exchanged a cryptocurrency for a fiat currency (e.g. USD or NOK).
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Paid with cryptocurrency when buying a product or service.
Calculating capital gains tax Capital gains are taxed at 22% in Norway. You are allowed to calculate your cost basis using either the FIFO, LIFO, or HIVO methods in Norway. If you have previously used FIFO in one year it is not required to keep using FIFO in the future.
Examples
Assume you buy 1 ETH for NOK 49950 with an additional transaction fee of NOK 50. Then the cost basis for this ETH is NOK 50000. A month later you buy 1 more ETH for NOK 55450 with an additional transaction fee of NOK 50. The cost basis for the second ETH is then NOK 55500. One month later you sell 1 ETH for NOK 52000. You can choose the accounting method you prefer to use for your cost basis.
If you choose to use FIFO (First-In-First-Out) then you use the cost basis of the first purchased ETH to calculate your capital gains. In that case you’ve made a gain of 52000 - 50000 = 2000 NOK.
If you choose to use LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) then you use the cost basis of the most recent purchased ETH to calculate your capital gains. In that case you’ve made a loss of 55500- 52000 = 3500 NOK.
So depending on your situation you can use accounting methods to your advantage to minimize tax dues.
Submitting capital gains tax: You can read more about how to submit taxes at the end of the guide.
Detailed information on different transaction types
Certain transactions trigger the three types of taxation listed above. Below is a master list for your reference, we will go through each in detail in this guide. Each transaction has an associated tax classification and the corresponding label in Divly for those using our service to automate their tax reporting.
| Transaction Type | Tax Classification | Divly Label |
|---|---|---|
| Buy crypto | None | Buy |
| Sell crypto | Capital Gains Tax | Sell |
| Trade crypto for crypto | Capital Gains Tax | Traded crypto |
| Initial Coin Offering (ICO) | Capital Gains Tax | Traded crypto |
| Purchase goods & services with crypto | Capital Gains Tax | Goods/Services |
| Pay trading fee with crypto | Capital Gains Tax | *Fee Included in Trade |
| Pay transfer fee with crypto | Capital Gains Tax | *Fee Included in Transfer |
| Transfer crypto between your own wallets | None | Transfer |
| Lost or stolen crypto | None* | Lost/Stolen |
| Give crypto as a gift | None* | Gifted Away |
| Receive crypto as a gift | None* | Received Gift |
| Donate crypto | None* | Donation |
| Airdrop | None | Airdrop |
| Hard Fork | None | Fork |
| Mining | Income Tax | Mining |
| Staking | Income Tax | Staking Reward |
| Income (e.g. freelancing, salary) | Income Tax | Income |
| Lend out Crypto | Income Tax | Interest Received |
| Borrowing Crypto | Income Tax | Interest Paid |
| Reward (e.g. referral) | Income Tax | Reward |
| Margin Trading | Capital Gains Tax | Realized Profit/Loss |
| Futures / Derivatives Trading | Capital Gains Tax | Realized Profit/Loss |
| DeFi | Capital Gains Tax/Income Tax | In progress, not yet available |
Buy Crypto / Buy Crypto with Fiat
There are no taxes involved when buying crypto. However, you need to ensure that you keep track of the price you paid for it, for your cost basis calculation. If you purchased the crypto in a foreign currency (e.g. USD or EUR) make sure to convert it to the value in local currency on that day. Norges Bank recommends using the following tool. Divly converts to your local currency automatically.
When buying crypto you can add the trading fee to the cost basis. This will help reduce your taxes. For example, you purchase 1 ETH for NOK 10 000 and pay a trading fee of NOK 100. Your cost basis for 1 ETH is 10 000 + 100 = NOK 10100.
Sell Crypto / Sell Crypto for Fiat
Selling cryptocurrency will always require you to declare capital gains tax whether it's at a profit or loss. Once again, it's important to calculate the selling price in local currency at the time of sale.
When selling crypto you can subtract the trading fee from the sale price. This will help reduce your taxes again. Let's continue with the previous example from above where we now sell 1 ETH for NOK 20 000 and pay a trading fee of 300 NOK. The profit for 1 ETH is 20 000 - 10100 - 300 = NOK 9 600 . If you are using Divly, all the fees are automated in the calculations.
Trade Crypto for Crypto
In Norway trading crypto for crypto is a capital gains tax event. You must pay capital gains on the cryptocurrency you sold. The value is based on the cryptocurrency that you sold it for, in your local currency. For example, if you sold 1 BTC for 10 ETH, then the selling price is the value of 10 ETH in NOK.
Finally, you need to account for the cost basis of the Ethereum that you purchased. This is the same as the value above, 10 ETH in NOK on the day of the trade.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
An ICO is when you invest your crypto (usually Ethereum) in a new project that in turn provides you a token that represents that project. From a taxation point of view, it functions the same as a crypto to crypto trade. Essentially, you send cryptocurrency in exchange for a token from a new project. You follow the same principle where you sell your crypto for the value of the ICO token in local currency. Capital gains tax is applied to the crypto you sent, and a cost basis is added to the new token at the same price.
Purchase Goods & Services with Crypto
When you purchase a good (e.g. new computer, amazon gift card) or pay for a service online (e.g. VPN service), then you must pay capital gains tax on the crypto you spent. This works the same as selling crypto for fiat, the selling price is what the good or service costs in your local currency.
Pay Trading Fees in Crypto
On some exchanges, typically when you trade crypto for crypto, the trading fee will be paid in crypto. In these cases, you need to convert the crypto you used to pay for the trading fee into your local currency and then pay capital gains on it.
Trading fees also contribute to the cost basis for the purchased cryptocurrency.
Pay Transfer Fees in Crypto
When you pay transfer fees in crypto you have to pay capital gains tax on the crypto used to pay the fees.
Transfer Crypto Between Your Own Wallets
Transferring crypto between your own wallets is not a taxable event (this includes sending crypto to your account on an exchange). It is important that you track these transfers properly so you don't pay unnecessary taxes!
Lost or Stolen Crypto
In some situations, you can get a tax exemption on stolen property. However, we are not certain if this also applies to crypto. It would be best to contact Skatteetaten yourself and ask for help with your specific situation.
Give Crypto as a Gift / Receive Crypto as a Gift
If you received crypto as a gift you don’t need to pay taxes on it until you sell it. If possible, ask for the purchase receipt from the person who gave you the crypto gift. You inherit the price they paid as your cost basis.
Donate Crypto
Skatteetaten does not provide concrete guidelines for donations paid in crypto. However, if we assume they don’t differ from donations in fiat then you can get a tax deduction if the following criteria are met.
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The organization must satisfy the tax law's requirements for activity, purpose, and national scope.
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The gift must be at least 500 kroner to each organization.
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The gift must be pre-filled in the tax return.
You can find a list of currently approved organizations here. You should not fill in any donations yourself. If your donation is not pre-filled then you must contact the organization to which you donated and ask them to report the gift amount to your birth number (fødselsnummer). In 2021 and 2020 the limit for a deduction is 50,000 kroner.
Airdrop
An airdrop is typically considered as a gift from the token holder or blockchain. Airdrops are usually a very small or negligible amount. Skatteetaten is not very clear with its regulations for airdrops. It is our view that as with a hard fork that airdrops do not contribute to your income.
Once you do sell the received cryptocurrency you have to pay capital gains tax while taking into account the cost basis of 0.
Hardfork
A hard fork is typically considered as a gift from the new blockchain fork. As with airdrops, there aren’t specific regulations for Norway provided by Skatteetaten. However, the deputy director of Skattedirektoratet, Anders Nytrøen, clarified in a statement that hard forks should not count as a realization or as income.
Therefore you should not count a hard fork as income. Instead set the cost basis to NOK 0 and pay capital gains tax upon sale.
Mining
Any crypto you earn from mining is considered taxable income. You must report the value of your mining income in NOK at the time you receive the tokens. Divly too can help you with this. Note that mining is now reported separately on your tax form from other gains. Check our “How to submit your tax report to Skatteetaten'' section below for more.
Staking
Staking, an alternative to mining, is also considered taxable income. You must report the value of your staking income in NOK at the time you receive the tokens. Staking income is reported with your mining income. Check our “How to submit your tax report to Skatteetaten” section below for more information.
Lending Your Crypto
The interest you earn from lending is taxed as income. You must report the value of the interest received in NOK at the time that you received it.
Borrowing Crypto
Interest expense is usually deductible This applies to everyone who has paid debt interest and/or default interest to a credit institution in Norway. Interest and deductible expenses you paid to a bank should be pre-filled. For any private loans, you should fill in the information yourself on your tax returns.
Rewards
Think for example of sharing a post or referring a friend to a service. Any crypto you receive for these actions is subject to the income tax. You need to report the value of the reward in NOK at the time you acquired the reward.
Income From Other Activities (e.g. freelancing, salary)
You need to report the value of the income you receive from other activities in NOK at the time of payment.
Margin trading, Futures, and Derivatives trading
Margin trading involves borrowing to take leveraged positions on crypto. The gains and losses you make are eligible for capital gains tax.
DeFi
DeFi is an abbreviation for decentralized finance. Unfortunately, the tax regulations for DeFi are not very lenient. DeFi transactions count as a realization for which you have to calculate your gain or loss. A token swap, deposits in a liquidity pool for the liquidity pool’s token, switching to and from the wrapped token all work as a crypto for crypto trade and you must calculate your capital gains.
Any return from a liquidity pool whether it be an increase in the underlying value of the asset or any rewards you receive for your participation will be subject to income tax. At a later sale time, you always have to pay capital gains taxes.
How to submit your tax report to Skatteetaten
Once all the tax calculations are done and Skatteetaten’s tax portal is open, it is time to declare your taxes before the deadline in April. You can submit your taxes online or by mail. We will primarily focus on the online portal in this guide. Should you want to call Skatteetaten you can reach them at (800 80 000) between 9:00 and 15:00 on weekdays. If you are abroad you can call +47 22 07 70 00. For the English menu press 9.
For the tax year 2019 and earlier you have to go to Altinn.no and get an RF-1159 form. But from 2019 onwards it is possible to fill in your taxes on Skatteetaten.no.
Skatteetaten
To report your cryptotaxes go to skatteetaten.no. Scroll down on your tax return to the heading Finans. Here you want to click on Andre finansprodukter og virtuell valuta/kryptovaluta then click on Virtuell valuta/kryptovaluta.
Here you will be given two options to fill out your crypto information. For the first option, you’ll have to input all the required information for each cryptocurrency individually. The second option is to input all the information for all your crypto together. If you choose the second option you will be required to upload attachments that provide the details.
Individually
You may find this to be easier if you do not have many unique cryptocurrencies. To select this option check the box saying Jeg vil legge inn opplysninger for hver enkelt. For each of your crypto holdings, you will have to fill in the following information.
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Navn på kryptovaluta/virtuell valuta (Name of the cryptocurrency/digital currency). Here you fill out the name of the cryptocurrency you are reporting for.
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Antall per 31. desember i inntektsåret (Amount owned on 31 December in the income year). This is asking you how many tokens you’ve had of this cryptocurrency. Say you have 10 Ethereum then you will put 10.
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Formuesverdi (Property value) Here you are asked to fill in the value of the respective crypto in NOK at the end of the year.
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Skattepliktig gevinst (Taxable gains) Here you fill in your taxable gains in NOK.
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Fradragsberrettiget tap(Deductible losses) Here you can fill in your deductible losses in NOK.
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Annen skattepliktig kapitalinntekt (Other taxable capital income) This was previously included under taxable gains. You should list your gains from mining and staking here.
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Lommebok/wallet-adresse benyttet for denne valutaen (Wallet address used for this currency) Here you should fill in the name of the exchange you use or the wallet address you use.
You must repeat this process for each of the cryptocurrencies you own.
Together
If you own a large number of cryptocurrencies, this next method should be faster. To select this option check the box saying jeg vil legge inn summerte skatteopplysninger for mange virtuelle valuta/kryptovaluta og må laste opp vedlegg som viser detaljer. This translates to "I want to enter summarized tax information and have to upload attachments that show details". Before you fill out the information regarding your currencies you are asked to attach documentation. You can do this using the legg ved dokumentasjon button found above Navn på kryptovaluta/virtuell valuta. Here you should upload a pdf that shows your wealth, gains, losses and other capital income for the year. You should also mention the exchanges and wallet addresses you have used.
After uploading this attachment you will have to fill in the following information.
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Formuesverdi (Property value). The total value of your cryptocurrencies at the turn of the year.
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Skattepliktig gevinst (Taxable gains). Here you fill in your taxable gains in NOK.
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Fradragsberettiget tap (Deductible losses) Here you can fill in your deductible losses in NOK.
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Annen skattepliktig paitalinntekt (Other taxable capital income). This was previously included under taxable gains. You should list your gains from mining and staking here.
Once you are done with either version of entering information you can go down to Årsak til endring/nye opplysninger (reason for the change/ new information) and check the box Lagt til opplysninger som manglet (Added information that was missing). Finally you can hit Ok.
Altinn
If you are reporting taxes for 2019 and earlier you have to fill out an RF-1159 form on Altinn.no
Above you will see the first half of the rf-1159b form.
From left to right the headings are as follows.
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Navn på selskap/verdipapir/finansielt produkt (Name of company/security/financial instrument) Here you can fill in the name of the respective cryptocurrency.
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Organisasjonsnummer (Organization number) You can leave this blank as a cryptocurrency does not have an organization number.
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Type verdipapir/finansielt produkt (Type of security/financial instrument) Here you must fill in VV for Virtual Valuta.
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ISIN-nummer (ISIN-number) You can also leave this blank
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Land selskapet er hjemmehørende i (gjelder kun aksjer) (Country the company is domiciled in (only applies to shares)). Again no need to fill anything in.
If you scroll to the right you’ll see the second half of the form.
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Antall aksjer/andeler i behold (Number of shares/units retained) With crypto you can own partial tokens and the form requires whole numbers. This column is not relevant to fill in.
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Formue(+)/Gjeld(-) (Wealth(+),Debt(-)). Here you can put in your total ownership value in NOK at the turn of the year.
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Gevinst (Gains). Here you can put all the capital gains you’ve made through sales and trades.
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Tap (Losses). Here you can put all the losses you’ve made through sales and trades.
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Utbytte/rente/avkastning (Dividend/Interest/return). You do not need to fill this out.
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Anvendt skjerming (Shielding used). You do not need to fill this out.
At this point you’ve successfully filled out the forms you need to do for your cryptocurrency taxes.
Ready to get your tax report?
To get started, simply sync your wallet and exchanges.