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ShelfCompanies24 has been forming Norwegian companies for international clients since 1995. Our Oslo team handles every step of company formation in Norway on a single service contract, from picking the right legal form through Brønnøysundregistrene registration, Skatteetaten tax registration, beneficial-ownership filing and your first Norwegian bank account. Most clients are trading inside 1 to 3 weeks via the Altinn portal, or in 3 to 7 working days via a ready-made ferdigregistrert AS.
Our service covers Brønnøysundregistrene filings, beneficial-owners register, virtual office.
AS + office + Norwegian banking + regnskapsfører under one roof.
Standard formation 1 to 3 weeks. Norwegian-speaking case manager.
eIDAS-qualified e-signature, Norwegian consulate, or delegate to our Oslo attorney via fullmakt.
We draft vedtekter, file Brønnøysundregistrene, register MVA, file BO.
Nothing on that list asks you to live in Norway. The two practical hurdles are the EEA board residency test, answered either by a dispensation from Brønnøysundregistrene or by an EEA resident board member, and Norwegian electronic identification, which non-residents rarely hold, so the Altinn filings are made by our Oslo attorney under a fullmakt instead. Founders based in the United States, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands follow exactly this route, and none of it requires a trip to Oslo.
The AS is the workhorse of Norwegian commerce. Governed by the Aksjeloven (Companies Act).
For listed entities (Oslo Børs, Euronext Growth Oslo). Min capital NOK 1,000,000.
| Form | Min. capital | Formation time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS | NOK 30,000 | 1 to 3 weeks | Default, SMEs, holdings |
| ASA | NOK 1,000,000 | 4 to 8 weeks | Listed groups |
| NUF | Parent-dependent | 3 to 6 weeks | Foreign multinational presence |
| Ferdigregistrert AS | NOK 30,000 (paid) | 3 to 7 days | Need immediate trading |
Confirm legal form, shareholder structure, business activity (with Norwegian SN-codes, Norway’s NACE-aligned classification), forretningskontor, capital, EEA-resident styret considerations, banking preferences.
The articles and founding document drafted by our Oslo attorney, bilingual Norwegian-English.
Open a startkapitalkonto at a Norwegian bank, deposit NOK 30,000+. Bank issues confirmation.
Files submitted electronically via Norway’s Altinn portal. Processing: 1 to 5 working days. Brønnøysundregistrene issues an organisasjonsnummer and the company appears in the public register at brreg.no. (electronic).
The organisasjonsnummer doubles as the tax identification. The company files with Skatteetaten for:
Norway maintains a register of beneficial owners at the Brønnøysund Register Centre, with the duty to register in force since 31 July 2025. It records the natural persons who ultimately own or control the company, the usual test being more than 25% of shares or votes. It is not public. Data is served through a machine interface to entities carrying out anti-money-laundering checks, the media, certain NGOs and universities, while only public authorities can search the whole register.
Convert startkapitalkonto to operating account. Norwegian banks: DNB, Nordea Norge, Sparebank 1, Handelsbanken, Danske Bank Norge.
If the business already exists somewhere else, you do not have to incorporate a second company. A foreign company can register a Norwegian branch, a norskregistrert utenlandsk foretak or NUF, which gets its own organisasjonsnummer in Brønnøysundregistrene and can invoice, employ and register for MVA in Norway. Registration takes 3 to 6 weeks and there is no separate share capital requirement, because the capital sits in the parent.
The difference that matters is legal personality. A NUF is not a separate company: the foreign parent remains the legal entity and carries the liability, while the branch books its Norwegian source income and files locally. An AS ring-fences the Norwegian activity in its own balance sheet, which is why most foreign owners choose it, and it is also the form Norwegian counterparties and banks are most comfortable with. A NUF earns its place where the parent needs common legal personality for group relief, licensing or treaty reasons, or where the Norwegian presence is a project office rather than a business of its own. We register either, and we will tell you plainly which one fits before anything is filed.
An AS filed through Altinn takes 1 to 3 weeks end to end. Brønnøysundregistrene itself normally processes a complete electronic filing in 1 to 5 working days; the rest is document drafting, the aksjekapital deposit, the bank confirmation and the Skatteetaten registrations that follow. An ASA takes 4 to 8 weeks and a NUF branch 3 to 6 weeks. Taking over a ferdigregistrert AS instead completes in 3 to 7 working days.
NOK 30,000 for an AS, paid in cash into a startkapitalkonto before registration, with the bank confirming the deposit to Brønnøysundregistrene. The capital belongs to the company, so it is available for trading once the startkapitalkonto becomes the operating account. An ASA needs NOK 1,000,000. A NUF branch has no separate capital requirement because the parent company carries it.
Shareholders may be of any nationality and live anywhere. The board cannot. Section 6-11 of the Norwegian Companies Act requires the general manager and at least half of the board members of an AS to reside in Norway, another EEA state, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. The nationality test was repealed in 2023, so only residence counts. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries can grant an exemption case by case, but they are not routine.
No. Norway is in the EEA, which gives a Norwegian AS single market access for goods, services, capital and people without EU membership. The practical differences are worth knowing: Norway sits outside the EU customs union and outside the EU VAT area, so goods moving across the border are customs cleared and Norwegian MVA applies rather than an EU VAT number. For services and holding structures the distinction rarely bites; for physical goods it shapes the logistics.
22% selskapsskatt. MVA 25% standard. 0% withholding to EEA corporate parents.
Yes, once the EEA board residency test is answered by a dispensation or by an EEA resident board member. Meetings, filings and banking are handled remotely after that. The point to watch is tax residence: a company managed wholly from another country can be treated as tax resident there as well, so we map the management arrangements and the treaty position between Norway and your country before the company is registered.
Skatteetaten MVA registration, BO filing, bank account opening, regnskapsfører engagement (Norwegian accountancy is a regulated profession).
The same way a Norwegian founder does, with two extra steps. You register an AS with NOK 30,000 of aksjekapital, a forretningskontor in Norway and a styret, then add MVA at Skatteetaten once turnover passes NOK 50,000. The extra steps are the EEA board residency test, answered by a dispensation or an EEA resident board member, and a fullmakt to our Oslo attorney so the Altinn filings can be made without Norwegian electronic identification.
A legal form, which for almost everyone is the AS; NOK 30,000 paid into a Norwegian startkapitalkonto; a forretningskontor, meaning a registered office address in the country; at least one board member, with the EEA residency test satisfied for the board as a whole; and vedtekter setting the name and the business purpose. Add identification for every beneficial owner above the 25% line and an SN code for the activity.
Ready to register your Norwegian AS? Contact our Norwegian desk.
Norway is one of several jurisdictions where ShelfCompanies24 maintains pre-formed entities and active formation services. Why pick Norway for your AS specifically? Nordic, EEA access, energy sector is the headline reason, but it pays to understand the trade-offs against the alternatives. Below are concrete differentiators that matter when you are weighing a structure decision against the actual operating profile of your business.
Cross-border corporate structuring in 2026 is governed by a tighter web of rules than in any previous decade. Three forces shape every decision:
For Norway specifically: 22% CIT; EEA member; AS NOK 30,000 minimum capital; energy/petroleum-sector special regime.
Issues we routinely see when prospects come to us after attempting the process directly with local providers in Norway:
Yes. A name change is filed with the Brønnøysundregistrene via a directors’ resolution and a routine filing, typically clears in 5 days. We include up to one name change as standard for both shelf-company purchase and new formation.
Norway has its own treaty network, with comprehensive tax treaties with about 85 countries, including the Nordic multilateral convention. Norway is in the EEA but not the EU, so the Parent-Subsidiary and Interest and Royalties Directives do not apply directly. The practical equivalent is domestic: the Norwegian participation exemption removes withholding tax on dividends paid to a genuinely established corporate shareholder in the EEA. Outside the EEA, the treaty rate governs.
Client information is held under contractual non-disclosure plus the professional-secrecy obligations applicable to corporate-service providers in our home jurisdiction. We do not share client identity or transaction details with third parties beyond what is statutorily required (KYC reporting, beneficial-owner-register filings, AML/CTF reporting where triggered). Our internal access to client files is logged and access-restricted by need-to-know.
Material tax changes (rate moves, new minimum-tax regimes, treaty amendments) get communicated to active clients with our analysis of impact. Where the change is structural, for example the OECD Pillar Two implementation in Norway or a domestic tax-base reform, we proactively flag clients whose structures may need restructuring and offer a defined remedial path. The client is not left to discover material regulatory change from their accountant or from media reports.
An AS is a separate legal entity Norwegian-tax-resident with its own corporate tax filings and beneficial-owner record. A branch is an extension of a foreign parent, the foreign parent is the legal entity, the Norway branch books local-source income but the parent’s overall tax liability cascades. Most foreign owners pick an AS for liability ring-fencing and clean tax accounting; branches are sometimes preferred where the parent has specific group-relief or treaty considerations that depend on common legal personality.
Engaging us for your Norwegian new AS formation covers the following deliverables under one service:
The deliverable scope is identical regardless of whether you are based in the EU, the US, the UK, the Middle East, or APAC, we operate the same service globally for Norwegian corporate setup. Optional add-ons (virtual office, accounting retainer, payroll, sector licences, transfer-pricing documentation) are scoped separately, so the incorporation or transfer work stays exactly as agreed.