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Accounts in Norway

Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in Norway: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.

Engine 2026Reviewed

Most Norwegians save for retirement in two places: a pension pot from work, which most private employers must pay into, and shares or funds of their own, often in a share savings account (aksjesparekonto). A smaller group also holds individual pension savings (IPS), a personal pension with a tax deduction on the way in. Norway also taxes what you own each year above a threshold (the wealth tax, formuesskatt), and pension pots are left out of it while the money stays in them.

Each of these has its own row in the money step, and the two kinds of IPS have one each, because they are taxed very differently when they pay out. Your pension provider's statement, or norskpensjon.no, says which kind each pot is and what is in it. A pension that already pays you an income for life, such as the state pension, an early retirement pension (AFP) or a public service pension, goes in the pension step instead.

Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-29. Each account lists the pages we read it from.

Accounts you can enter

A new plan starts with 65% in Ordinary investment account, 17% in Share savings account (ASK), 18% in Employer pension (OTP or EPK), until you replace it with your own accounts. Where that split comes from: Statistics Norway, household financial assets 2024, and the pension account register.

Ordinary investment account

Dividends and profit are taxed when they arrive or when you sell, and the balance itself is taxed each year above a threshold.

Shares, funds, bonds and bank savings you hold directly at a bank or broker, outside a share savings account or a pension. Dividends and share gains are raised by 1.72 and then taxed at 22%, which comes to 37.84%. Interest is taxed at 22% each year.

The balance also counts toward the wealth tax: 1% a year of what a person owns above 1,900,000 kroner in 2026, with shares and equity funds counted at 80% of their value.

How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands

Share savings account (ASK)

Nothing is taxed while the money stays in. What you take out counts as your own deposits first, untaxed. Only what comes out beyond them is taxed, like a gain on shares, less a yearly tax-free allowance on what you paid in.

A share savings account is an account at a bank or broker for listed shares and equity funds from the European Economic Area. It is not a pension: money can come out at any age, and there is no limit on what you pay in. The law does not let it hold bonds or earn interest, so savings of that kind belong in the ordinary account.

Nothing is taxed while the money stays in the account, however much you buy and sell inside it. When you take money out, it counts first as your own deposits coming back, untaxed. Only what comes out beyond them is a gain, raised by 1.72 and taxed at 22%, less a yearly untaxed slice on what you paid in (the shielding deduction, skjermingsfradrag). The part of that slice you do not use carries forward to later years, and the plan carries it too.

The planner asks what you have paid in that is still in the account, which your statement shows. The account still counts toward the wealth tax, with the shares in it at 80% of their value, like shares held outside it.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • A share savings account (aksjesparekonto) gives back what you paid in first, untaxed, and taxes only what comes out beyond it, and we model that. One rule is missing: if you close the account worth less than you paid in, Norway lets you deduct the shortfall, raised by 1.72. We do not, so in a plan where the account runs out after a fall in the market we show too much tax that year, 22 for every 100 of the raised shortfall.

    Your real tax is lower/anyone whose share savings account runs out while it is worth less than they paid in

  • The rate that sets the untaxed slice on shares is fixed a year in arrears: the 2026 rate is not published until January 2027, so it does not exist yet. We use the 2025 rate of 3.6 percent for the slice we give inside a share savings account.

    Could go either way/anyone with a Norwegian share savings account

The law behind it
sktl. § 10-21, § 10-22; FSFIN § 10-21

Employer pension (OTP or EPK)

Nothing comes out before 62. It then pays a share each year over at least 10 years and to at least 77. Outside the wealth tax while it is in there.

An employer pension (obligatorisk tjenestepensjon, OTP) is the pot your employer pays a share of your salary into, at least 2% by law. The pot from your current job sits in your own pension account (egen pensjonskonto, EPK), and pots from earlier jobs, called pension capital certificates (pensjonskapitalbevis), are usually moved into it. Enter them together, or a pot left with another provider as its own row: the rules are the same.

Nothing comes out before 62. You then choose when the payments start, at 75 at the latest, and over how many years. The plan pays exactly that schedule: each year, the balance at the start of the year divided by the years left. What you do not need that year moves to your ordinary account. Before 62 the money is out of reach: it keeps growing, but the plan cannot spend it.

Each payment is taxed as pension income, just like the state pension: 22% after the standard deduction (minstefradrag), plus the bracket tax (trinnskatt) and the national insurance contribution (trygdeavgift), and it shrinks the tax credit pensioners get, as the state pension does. While the money stays in the pot, it is left out of the wealth tax.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before 62
Pays out
In instalments over a term you choose, within the law's limits
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age the payments start From the earliest age it pays out to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Years it pays out over From 10 to 40 years. We assume 10 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • A small workplace or personal pension may be paid over fewer years, so each yearly payment is at least about 20 percent of the base amount (G), about 27,300 in 2026. The law lets either the provider or you ask for that. We always do it, so a small pension pays out faster here than it would if neither of you asked.

    Could go either way/anyone with a small OTP, IPS or old IPS pot

  • When a partner dies, what is left in their employer pension (OTP) or IPS pays the surviving partner a pension, taxed the same way, and the plan does that too. Two details differ. The law first pays a pension to any children under 21, and pays the partner over at least ten years; the plan keeps the deceased's own payment schedule.

    Could go either way/a couple where one partner dies holding an OTP or IPS, especially with children under 21

The law behind it
innskuddspensjonsloven 7-4; sktl. 4-2(2)

IPS opened from November 2017

Nothing comes out before 62. It then pays a share each year over at least 10 years and to at least 80. Outside the wealth tax while it is in there.

Individual pension savings (individuell sparing til pensjon, IPS) is a personal pension you open yourself at a bank or fund manager. Payments in are deducted from your taxable income, up to 25,000 kroner a year in 2026, shared with any older IPS you also pay into. The plan does not model tax before retirement, so it starts from what is in the account.

An IPS opened from November 2017 is taxed lightly on the way out: each payment counts only as ordinary income at 22%. Unlike a pension, it pays no bracket tax and no national insurance contribution, gets no standard deduction, and does not reduce the tax credit for pensioners. While the money stays in, it is left out of the wealth tax.

Nothing comes out before 62, and there is no lump sum. The plan pays it over the years you choose, running to at least 80, as each year's share of what is left.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before 62
Pays out
In instalments over a term you choose, within the law's limits
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age the payments start From the earliest age it pays out to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Years it pays out over From 10 to 40 years. No default: you answer it.
Where the model simplifies

  • A small workplace or personal pension may be paid over fewer years, so each yearly payment is at least about 20 percent of the base amount (G), about 27,300 in 2026. The law lets either the provider or you ask for that. We always do it, so a small pension pays out faster here than it would if neither of you asked.

    Could go either way/anyone with a small OTP, IPS or old IPS pot

  • When a partner dies, what is left in their employer pension (OTP) or IPS pays the surviving partner a pension, taxed the same way, and the plan does that too. Two details differ. The law first pays a pension to any children under 21, and pays the partner over at least ten years; the plan keeps the deceased's own payment schedule.

    Could go either way/a couple where one partner dies holding an OTP or IPS, especially with children under 21

The law behind it
FSFIN 6-47-11 to 6-47-13; sktl. 6-47

IPS opened before November 2017

Nothing comes out before 62. It then pays a share each year over at least 10 years and to at least 77.

An individual pension agreement opened before November 2017 (gammel IPS, or an older IPA) works like the newer IPS while you save, including the shared deduction of up to 25,000 kroner a year in 2026 and the exemption from the wealth tax. The difference is on the way out: each payment is taxed as pension income, with the bracket tax and the national insurance contribution, like an employer pension.

This row is for the savings kind of agreement, which pays from 62 over a fixed number of years running to at least 77. The plan pays it as each year's share of what is left. An insurance kind that pays for life belongs in the pension step instead.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before 62
Pays out
In instalments over a term you choose, within the law's limits
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age the payments start From the earliest age it pays out to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Years it pays out over From 10 to 40 years. No default: you answer it.
Where the model simplifies

  • A small workplace or personal pension may be paid over fewer years, so each yearly payment is at least about 20 percent of the base amount (G), about 27,300 in 2026. The law lets either the provider or you ask for that. We always do it, so a small pension pays out faster here than it would if neither of you asked.

    Could go either way/anyone with a small OTP, IPS or old IPS pot

  • When a partner dies, what is left in their employer pension (OTP) or IPS pays the surviving partner a pension, taxed the same way, and the plan does that too. Two details differ. The law first pays a pension to any children under 21, and pays the partner over at least ten years; the plan keeps the deceased's own payment schedule.

    Could go either way/a couple where one partner dies holding an OTP or IPS, especially with children under 21

The law behind it
lov om individuell pensjonsordning (LOV-2008-06-27-62) 2-4, 2-5, 2-7

Kinds of pension

A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.

Life annuity, private or from work (livrente)

What you paid, or the premium you were taxed on as salary, comes back untaxed in equal yearly parts, and the rest of each payment is taxed as income.

This is a life annuity you bought yourself from an insurer with money you had already paid tax on, or one your employer paid for after 2006 with the premium taxed as part of your salary. Enter the premiums you paid, or the taxed premium, as its price. Norway divides them by a number of years set by your age when payments start, and that part of each payment comes back untaxed. Left empty, the whole payment is taxed.

Where the model simplifies

  • For a private or workplace life annuity, Norway lets you subtract the same slice of your premiums from every payment for as long as the annuity runs, even once the slices add up to more than you paid. We stop subtracting once you have had your premiums back, so late in life we show more tax than you pay: about 4,400 a year from age 90 on 500,000 of premiums started at 65.

    Your real tax is lower/up to 4 400 kr a year/people with a lifelong Norwegian livrente who live past 90, or past 25 years of payments

  • If a life annuity pays less each year than the slice of premiums you may subtract, Norway lets you deduct the difference from your other income. We treat that annuity as tax free but give no deduction, so we show slightly more tax than you pay: about 1,100 a year when a 35,000 payment sits against a 40,000 deduction.

    Your real tax is lower/up to 1 100 kr a year/people whose Norwegian livrente pays less a year than its premiums divided by the divisor, usually a refund-of-premium policy with a low return

  • A life annuity that pays for a fixed number of years has its yearly tax free slice set by that number of years. We can only set it by the age payments start, as if it paid for life, which gives a smaller slice, so for a fixed term annuity we show more tax than you pay: about 6,400 a year on a 10 year annuity started at 67 with 500,000 of premiums.

    Your real tax is lower/up to 6 417 kr a year/people with a fixed-term Norwegian livrente, entered as lifelong or left untyped

  • A private life annuity you bought yourself counts toward Norway's wealth tax at the amount the insurer would pay if you cashed it in. We leave it out, so if your wealth is above the threshold we show less wealth tax than you pay: 1 percent of that cash in value, for example 25,000 a year on a 2.5 million policy.

    Your real tax is higher/up to 25 000 kr a year/people with a private Norwegian livrente whose net wealth is above the 1,900,000 threshold

  • When a life annuity passes to a widow or widower, or to the survivor named in it, Norway works out the tax free slice again from the policy's value at the death, not from the premiums. If you cash a life annuity in, the cash above the premiums not yet subtracted is taxed, with an extra charge if you cash it in early. We model neither: the annuity simply stops at the owner's death and is never cashed in.

    Could go either way/survivors receiving a Norwegian livrente, and anyone who cashes one in

The law behind it
sktl. § 5-41(1) (https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1999-03-26-14/KAPITTEL_5); FSFIN §§ 5-41-1, 5-41-2 k, 5-41-3(1)-(2), 5-41-9 (https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1999-11-19-1158/KAPITTEL_5)

Where other things you hold go

State pension, AFP, and public service pensions (SPK, KLP)
Enter them in the pension step as an income. They are taxed as pension income for as long as they pay.
Paid-up defined-benefit policies (fripolise) and hybrid pensions
These pay an income for life by default, so enter what they will pay in the pension step as a standard pension, not here.
Old IPS taken out as insurance that pays for life
Enter it in the pension step as a standard pension. Only the savings kind, paid over a fixed number of years, is an account here.
Fund accounts in an insurance policy (fondskonto, kapitalforsikring)
Norway taxes funds held through these policies as if you held the funds yourself, so enter them in the ordinary investment account.
A personal holding company
The planner has no row for shares held through a company of your own. The company is taxed differently from you, and money taken out of it is taxed as a dividend, so neither account here describes it.