VAT from 2026

From the accounting year 2026 onwards, the reconciliation of Value Added Tax (VAT) will be launched with modified and new functions.

Summary of New Functionality

Tax base can be reconciled against sales accounts
All VAT period types from weekly to annual periods are supported
Combination of multiple industries/business activities with different period lengths
The period length for VAT periods is decoupled from the period length for reconciliation
Viewing details on the downloaded VAT return
Reconciliation of the settlement account (2740)
Automatic proposal/categorization of accounted payment transactions
Visibility of the residual balance on VAT accounts to be reported in later periods

The VAT reconciliation consists of the following sections:

Tax Base
Tax Amount
Payment of Tax
VAT Payable on the Settlement Account
VAT Payable for Later Periods

VAT Returns Submitted to the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten)

Reconciliation is based on VAT returns sent to Skatteetaten. There is a function to retrieve the returns from Skatteetaten that must be used to synchronize the function with actual submissions. VAT returns will not be retrieved from the accounting system, but will use actual submissions of returns received by Skatteetaten.

Column Division of VAT Reconciliation

Columns in the reconciliation correspond to the period length for the client. For clients with only annual accounts, the period division will be six 2-month periods during the year.

1. Tax Base

Summary of each tax base code with specification on VAT returns in the period.

It is possible to select that the tax base should be reconciled against sales accounts in a selection at the top of the VAT reconciliation. In such cases, some tax codes for outgoing VAT will be reconciled against sales accounts, and others will not. These are divided into two separate sections in the reconciliation.

If this is selected, all relevant sales accounts will be shown for the following tax codes for outgoing VAT:

3 Sales and withdrawals of goods and services (high rate)
5 Sales and withdrawals of goods and services exempt from VAT (zero rate)
6 Sales and withdrawals of goods and services outside the scope of the VAT Act
31 Sales and withdrawals of goods and services (medium rate)
32 Sale of fish and other marine wild resources (11.11 %)
33 Sales and withdrawals of goods and services (low rate)
51 Sale of climate quotas and gold to traders (reverse charge)
52 Sales of goods and services abroad exempt from VAT (zero rate)

Other tax codes for outgoing VAT are only presented with the value according to the sales return.

Reference accounts for sales accounts determine which tax code the individual VAT account is included in. The tax code is also part of the name of the reference account.

If there are VAT amounts in the 27-series accounts in the period that have not been reported in the period or corresponding amounts in the previous tax period, these VAT amounts will be included grossed up to the turnover amount in the reconciliation, in separate lines:

Addition for grossed-up non-reported outgoing VAT carried forward from earlier periods
Deduction for grossed-up non-reported outgoing VAT which is reported in later periods.

For codes with a zero rate, the amount must be registered here, as it is not possible to gross up the tax amount to find the turnover figure.

These lines will be used in cases where the VAT periods and the reconciliation periods do not match, for example, if the reconciliation is monthly while VAT returns are bi-monthly, or one has both bi-monthly VAT returns and an annual return for the same industry/business activity. If reconciliation is bi-monthly with a bi-monthly period, these two lines will not be relevant, and they will not be shown.

2. Tax Amount

The VAT Return column shows each tax code with specification on VAT returns.
The Accounting column shows the accounted amount cleared against the settlement account for each individual VAT account with a reference account in the 27-series. Amounts that have not been cleared against the settlement account will not be included here. The difference in this section can be explained by a discrepancy between the accounted clearing of tax against the settlement account and the reported VAT on the tax returns for each item in the VAT return and each VAT account in the 27-series. The reference account is used to match the account against the tax code. It is therefore important to check the correct reference account in case of deviations.

3. Payment of Tax

The VAT Return column shows the amount payable or the amount receivable for each tax return.
The Booked column shows the accounted payment of tax due or refund of receivable tax.

The system attempts to link VAT payments on the settlement account with each individual tax return. By clicking on the balance figure for the settlement account, the transaction view for the settlement account will appear.

Each transaction on the settlement account will be automatically linked to a tax return.

If the automatic linking is not set automatically, the user can check for manual linking and set the link of payment against a given tax return received from Skatteetaten. It can only be linked against a tax return that exists at Skatteetaten. Linking of payment can occur automatically during what is the normal due date period for the VAT return for the individual periods. Outside this period, categorization of payment must be done manually.

It is also possible to register manual lines for payment of VAT returns with an indication of the voucher.

The difference in this section is the difference between the reported tax and the accounted payments or refunds of the tax, specified with reference to the voucher number.

4. VAT Payable on Settlement Account

The Booked column shows the balance on the settlement account.
The VAT Return column will show the tax returns that are due after the end of the period, if they have not already been stated as paid before the balance sheet date of the settlement account.

The difference in this section is accounted tax due that cannot be explained by a reported tax period.

5. VAT Payable for Later Periods

The balance on VAT accounts in the 27-series that have not been cleared against the settlement account on the balance sheet date will be shown here.

This balance may consist of:

Tax that should have been reported in tax periods ending before or on the balance sheet date
Tax to be reported in tax periods ending on a date after the balance sheet date. This may be tax that will be reported in an annual period where the balance sheet date is other than 31.12. For a reconciliation column concerning a quarter, for example, January - March with a 2-month period, the amount from March for the tax period March-April will be shown here because the tax period has not ended on the balance sheet date.

If the balance on an account entirely concerns tax belonging to a later period, you can click on the arrow button next to the amount to fill in the amount in the column for tax for a later period. Alternatively, you can enter which part of the amount concerns tax in a later period.

The difference in this section is tax due that does not concern a later period, i.e., tax that should have been reported in a period that has already been or should have been reported.

Details on the Tax Return

By clicking on a tax amount in the VAT Return column, a view of the details on the corresponding VAT return will appear.

Objective and Significance of Deviations

1. Tax Base

Objective: Check that the reported tax base for VAT matches the booked turnover in the accounting period.

If there is a deviation here, it may be because not all turnover and outgoing tax have been reported in the period. Also check if data has been entered in the section “VAT Payable for Later Periods” as amounts in this section are significant for the correction of calculated accounted turnover.
If the deviation is on a code with a zero rate or outside the scope of tax, the amount that is to be reported in later periods at the end of the period must be manually specified to obtain the correct difference amount.

2. Tax Amount

Objective: Ensure that the clearing of the VAT accounts (27-series) against the Settlement Account (2740) corresponds to the reported input and output tax in the period.

Note that the tax amount in this section is the tax amounts that have been cleared against account 2740 settlement account, while the residual balance on the account is not included here, but is included in the Booked column in the VAT Payable for Later Periods section.

3. Payment of Tax

Objective: Check that the net reported VAT matches the actually paid or received VAT.

Future payments and receipts are included in this section by linking payment transactions with tax returns.

4. VAT Payable on Settlement Account

Objective: Ensure that the VAT payable/receivable for the reported returns that have not been paid at the end of the period matches the balance on account 2740 Settlement Account.

The due date on the VAT return is not significant, as the control does not concern whether the payment was made on time.

5. VAT Payable for Later Periods

The reconciliation periods do not necessarily match the VAT periods for the enterprise. For example, one may have monthly reconciliation and bi-monthly VAT periods.

Objective: Specify the VAT balances on the account for output/input VAT that concern tax that is to be reported in later periods and ensure that there is no missing clearing of VAT accounts against the settlement account at the end of the period.

Examples of Use:

Here, typically for odd months January, March, May, etc., it will be necessary to specify that VAT is to be reported in later periods, so that the VAT and turnover are reconciled and transferred to the next month.

Other enterprises may have several VAT periods for different industries/business activities, typically primary industries with an annual VAT return combined with, for example, bi-monthly VAT returns for another activity.

If reconciliation is done bi-monthly here, the annual return figures will appear as payable throughout the year.
Here, typically, the tax concerning the annual VAT return will be entered in the column for reported in Later Periods, and reconciliation of turnover, output, and input tax will thus be corrected for this and will not show a deviation for the part concerning annual VAT returns.