Economic rent tax on aquaculture – Adjustment proposal to the Storting
On 28 March 2023, the Government, as expected, proposed to adjust the proposal for economic rent tax. However, relatively small adjustments are made. The Government could not answer what amounts the economic rent tax would constitute in 2023 when repeatedly asked by the press. We have reason to assume that this tax will far exceed the nearly 4 billion that was estimated in the first round. It now remains to be seen whether this is sufficient to be approved by the legislator.
The proposed changes/specifications are the following:
- The rate is reduced by 5% to 35%
- The effective total tax including corporation tax becomes 57% (compared to 62% before)
- Standard price (price advice) shall not be introduced until 2024, the first year is self-reporting income
- Operating assets are depreciated with the balance basis or other way and no deduction is given for historical surplus values, except for those who bought capacity from the Government in the period 2018-2020. Here, a 40% reduction is given
- Market costs are not included in the deduction.
- The minimum deduction is set to an amount of MNOK 70 per group
- The group definition is set to apply to more “related parties”
- It is specified that it shall not apply to fish farming outside of the territorial boundary (12nm) – or on land
- Development permits shall also not be covered by this tax
- The production tax is increased to 90 øre/kilo, but a deduction is given directly in the economic rent tax
- The proposal for a separate natural resource tax is omitted
A continuity rule is introduced that will avoid adaptations when selling a company.
