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For almost every founder, company registration in Norway means forming an aksjeselskap, the AS, and entering it in Foretaksregisteret, the Register of Business Enterprises kept by Brønnøysundregistrene (the Brønnøysund Register Centre). The AS is Norway’s limited liability company: its owners risk only what they paid for their shares. Norway has no separate form called LLC, so a search for an LLC in Norway, or for “llc norge”, ends at the AS.
The route has four parts: a memorandum of association signed by the founders, share capital of at least NOK 30,000 paid in full and confirmed, the Coordinated Register Notification (Samordnet registermelding) filed through Altinn or on paper, and the duties that begin once the organisation number is issued. Foreign founders face two further questions: where the management lives, and whether it holds a Norwegian identity number or D-number. To take over an AS that is already registered instead, see our page on ready made companies in Norway.
| Form | Who answers for its debts | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Aksjeselskap (AS) | The company; owners risk only their contribution | Trading companies, holding companies, subsidiaries of foreign groups |
| Allmennaksjeselskap (ASA) | The company | Public offers of shares and listings; capital of at least NOK 1 million |
| Ansvarlig selskap (ANS or DA) | The participants, whose liability is recorded in the register | Partners who accept personal liability |
| Enkeltpersonforetak (ENK) | The owner personally | One person trading alone |
| Norwegian-registered foreign business (NUF) | The foreign company itself | A foreign company doing business in Norway in its own name |
The name of an AS must end with aksjeselskap or AS, and under section 2-2 of the Limited Liability Companies Act (aksjeloven) its articles (vedtekter) need only the name, the business activity, the share capital and the nominal value of the shares.
| Point | Rule | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Founders | One or more individuals or companies, aged 18 or over, of any nationality and living anywhere | Aksjeloven chapter 2; Altinn guidance |
| Share capital | At least NOK 30,000, paid in full before the company is notified to the register | Sections 3-1 and 2-18 |
| Board (styre) | At least one member and a chair; a sole member is the chair; deputies only if the general meeting elects them | Sections 6-1 and 6-3 |
| General manager (daglig leder) | Optional | Section 6-2 |
| Residence | The general manager and at least half of the board must live in an EEA state, the United Kingdom or Switzerland; the register applies the same test to deputy members | Section 6-11; Brønnøysundregistrene |
| Business address | A Norwegian street address with house number, postcode and town; a post box is refused | Altinn; Brønnøysundregistrene |
| Auditor | Needed unless audit is waived, which is possible while operating revenue stays under NOK 7 million, the balance sheet under NOK 27 million and staff at no more than 10 man-years | Section 7-6 and its regulation |
Nothing here calls for a notary, a company secretary or a nominee. The residence test looks at where people live, not at citizenship, which stopped counting in 2023, and the register checks every role holder before registering. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries can grant an exemption, but only as an exception.
Owning a Norwegian AS requires no Norwegian number. A foreign individual founder gives a name, date of birth and address in the memorandum; a foreign company gives its name, address and representative. The number matters for role holders: every board member, deputy and general manager is registered with a Norwegian national identity number (fødselsnummer) or a D-number, the number Norway assigns to foreign nationals who need to identify themselves to its authorities.
Where the role holders have one of those numbers and Norwegian electronic ID, the notification is filed and signed in Altinn. Where one of them has neither, the filing moves to paper: the company posts the paper Coordinated Register Notification with an application for a D-number, form BR1015B, for each such person, and Brønnøysundregistrene orders the number from the National Population Register. It cannot travel alone and needs a colour copy of a passport or ID card, under three months old, certified with original signature and stamp, for instance by a foreign notary or a Norwegian lawyer.
Digital company formation through the six banks and software providers that work with the register is closed to founders without a Norwegian number and to companies with a general manager or board member living outside the EEA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Separately, a non-EEA citizen who will work in the business in Norway needs a residence permit from UDI.
| Norwegian | English |
|---|---|
| stiftelsesdokument | memorandum of association, signed and dated by every founder |
| Foretaksregisteret, Enhetsregisteret | Register of Business Enterprises, Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities |
| aksjeeierbok | share register, kept by the company |
| firmaattest | company certificate, the register extract banks ask for |
| Step | What happens | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorandum | The founders draw up the memorandum with the articles, naming the board, the shares each founder takes, the amount paid per share, the payment date and any auditor. The company is founded when the last founder has signed. | Aksjeloven sections 2-1 to 2-3 and 2-9 |
| 2. Share capital | The capital is paid in full. A cash payment can be confirmed by a financial institution in Norway or another EEA state, a lawyer, a state-authorised accountant or an auditor; a contribution in other assets only by an auditor. A confirmation from a bank in another EEA state sends the whole notification to the paper route. | Section 2-18(2); Brønnøysundregistrene |
| 3. Notification | The Coordinated Register Notification goes in within three months of signing, with the memorandum, articles and capital confirmation, signed by the board including deputies, by whoever confirmed the capital and by any auditor. Filed later, the company cannot be registered. | Section 2-18(1) and (3) |
| 4. Processing | A new registration must be processed within ten working days, or five when the company was formed on the register’s approved electronic template, and the register must tell the sender if it cannot keep to this. | Business Register Act 2025, section 4-1(3) |
| 5. Registration | The company receives its organisation number. Until then it cannot take on obligations beyond those in the memorandum, and anyone acting in its name is personally and jointly liable until the company takes the obligation over. | Section 2-20 |
For a founder abroad the capital account is often the slow part: DNB, for example, blocks accounts of companies under registration for anything but the capital until its due diligence is complete, and its online route relies on Norwegian BankID. Brønnøysundregistrene also publishes its current processing queue on its website.
Within 14 days of receiving the organisation number the company reports to the Register of Beneficial Owners whether it has any, meaning people who own or control more than 25 per cent or can appoint or remove more than half the board. Missing that deadline brings daily coercive fines. The form exists only in Altinn, so where no role holder can log in, the accountant or auditor files it. The board also sets up the share register at once.
VAT (merverdiavgift, MVA) is a separate registration with the Tax Administration, Skatteetaten, due once sales of VAT-liable goods and services pass NOK 50,000 within any 12 months; no VAT may be invoiced before it. A new company may pre-register with documented VAT-liable start-up purchases of at least NOK 250,000, or when it will reach the limit within three weeks.
| Tax | Rate or threshold |
|---|---|
| Corporate income tax | 22%; 25% for the financial sector |
| VAT | 25% general rate; 15% on food and beverages; 12% on passenger transport, accommodation and certain admissions |
| VAT registration | NOK 50,000 of VAT-liable sales within 12 months |
| Withholding tax on dividends | 25% by statute; removed by the participation exemption for an EEA corporate shareholder with real substance, otherwise reduced under Norway’s treaties with about 85 countries |
The ordinary general meeting, within six months of the year end, approves the annual accounts, which must reach the Register of Company Accounts by 31 July, with no extension and also for dormant companies. The corporate tax return is due by the end of May. By 31 January the company also files the shareholder register statement (aksjonærregisteroppgaven, form RF-1086) with Skatteetaten, since June 2026 only through an end-user system such as accounting software. A new board member, address or signatory is notified to the register without undue delay.
A foreign company can trade in Norway without an AS by registering a norskregistrert utenlandsk foretak, an NUF, which is a duty once it does business in Norway or on the continental shelf; Brønnøysundregistrene treats turnover of NOK 50,000 or more within 12 months, from activity lasting over 90 days, as business operations, while holding shares or needing an organisation number for a bank account does not qualify.
An NUF is registered on the register’s PDF form, sent by post or through its contact form, not in Altinn, with a home register certificate as a rule under three months old, the foreign company’s memorandum and articles and the minutes deciding to set up the branch; attachments may be in English. The name is the foreign company’s name followed by NUF, and the foreign company remains responsible for the business in Norway. An NUF cannot later be converted into an AS: the way across is a new AS and closing the branch.
When the role holders have Norwegian identity numbers and electronic ID and a bank will take the capital, a new AS is quick: the register must process it within ten working days. A ready-made AS, a hylleselskap in Norwegian, earns its place when founders abroad cannot arrange the capital account, or when a contract or tender needs an organisation number now. It keeps the residence rule, the D-numbers, the beneficial-owner filing and the bank’s checks, and its board change is a filing of its own. The comparison is on our page about buying a shelf company in Norway, and our guide to off the shelf companies explains the general idea.
As a company formation agent for Norway, we can form a new AS for you or supply a ready-made one, prepare the memorandum, articles and minutes, the Coordinated Register Notification and any D-number applications, and help put the bank application together. Where we have a working contact at a suitable bank we can make an introduction; the bank alone decides. If fewer than half the board live in the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we can arrange resident board members, and a resident general manager where the company has one, through a provider authorised by Finanstilsynet or through an advokat, state-authorised accountant or auditor, as the Money Laundering Act requires; they carry the full duties and personal liability of board members under the Limited Liability Companies Act, and you are registered as beneficial owner with the Brønnøysund Register Centre. What Norwegian banks ask of owners abroad is on our page on bank accounts for Norwegian companies, and the wider picture on our Norway page.
The Business Register Act gives Brønnøysundregistrene ten working days to process a new AS filed in Altinn, five on the register’s electronic template, and requires it to explain any delay. Add the time to open the capital account and get the confirmation, and postal time where a role holder needs a D-number.
Yes. Founders and shareholders may be of any nationality and live anywhere, and a foreign founder needs no Norwegian number. The conditions sit with management: the general manager and at least half of the board must live in the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, and role holders without a Norwegian identity number obtain a D-number through a paper filing.
Not under that name. The Norwegian equivalent of an LLC or a British Ltd is the aksjeselskap, the AS: one or more shareholders, liability limited to the capital paid in, a board of at least one member and share capital of at least NOK 30,000. A foreign LLC can own a Norwegian AS as a subsidiary, or register a branch, an NUF, whose business remains its own responsibility.
Not in Norway itself. Section 6-11 of the Limited Liability Companies Act requires the general manager and at least half of the board members to reside in an EEA state, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. A sole board member living in the United States fails it; a board of two with one member living in the EEA passes, because half is enough.
Brønnøysundregistrene’s rule is that registration documents are in Norwegian, and its sample memorandum (stiftelsesdokument) exists only in Norwegian. English is accepted for minutes recording the election of a board or auditor or the grant of signature rights. Any other foreign-language document must state its language and which parts carry the reported information, and the register may ask for a Norwegian translation.
No. Section 2-18 lets a financial institution in Norway or another EEA state, a lawyer or a state-authorised accountant confirm a cash contribution, and an auditor confirm any contribution. A confirmation from a bank elsewhere in the EEA means the whole notification goes by post instead of through Altinn. Banks set their own terms for capital accounts.
Tell us who will own the Norwegian company, who will sit on its board and where each of them lives, and we will tell you what a formation would need or which ready-made companies are available now. Write through our contact page, or on Telegram or WhatsApp at +48 663 247 166.