In January, reporting must be made to the authorities. Shareholder registers must be reported and options granted or exercised under the scheme for start-up companies must be reported. Other options or purchases of shares at a discount are reported in the month of exercise. Everyone must report the shareholder register statement, but reporting of options is only done by companies that have used schemes around this or have had the exercise of options from employees.
Options under the start-up company scheme must be reported both at grant (when the employee gains access to the option) and at exercise (when the employee exercises the option by buying shares). Below is a brief overview:
Shareholder register:
All Norwegian limited liability companies must report information about their owners using the shareholder register statement.
Options granted under the start-up company scheme:
All options granted to employees under the "options for start-up companies" scheme must be reported on a separate form to the tax authorities. This means that anyone who has granted options to employees under this scheme in 2023 must report this.
Options exercised under the start-up company scheme:
All options exercised by employees in 2023 under the scheme "options for start-up companies" must be reported on a separate form to the tax authorities. These options must have previously been reported as granted (see point above). If the option has previously been reported as granted under the option scheme for start-up companies, the company will avoid employer's national insurance contributions on the benefit and the employee will avoid payroll taxation on the benefit. It is assumed that all criteria for the option scheme are met, including a minimum of 3 years for possible exercise. This means that the option was granted in 2020 at the latest and that all other conditions are met.
Employees' exercise of other options or purchase of shares at a discount by other means:
If the employee has received a discount on the purchase of shares in the company, this is considered a taxable benefit. The benefit from the exercise of ordinary options is then reported as a benefit in kind, i.e. a form of salary (this does not apply to option schemes for start-up companies).
Deadline: the month in which redemption takes place.
What should be reported when using "options for start-up companies"?
Information about the company, the employee and the option must be reported:
Organization number and company name of the employer company
Employee's national identity number and name
Date of grant, number of options, exercise price and market value.
If the employee has been granted options at several different times during the year, the date of each grant must be stated separately. The agreed exercise price in total of the underlying shares at the time of grant and the market value in total of the underlying shares at the time of grant must be stated.
When exercising options, largely the same information is provided as for grants, but the date of exercise is also included.
The reporting form is available in Altinn and can be completed by a person who has the necessary Altinn role for the company. This will often be the accountant.
If the company uses Unlisted's portal for handling options, it is possible to give access to the accountant, who can then easily retrieve all the necessary information.
Why should you report options and what is the information used for?
Option scheme for start-up companies
Provide the authorities with information on how many companies make use of the favorable option scheme, and to what extent.
The information is also used to check the terms of the scheme.
The authorities will have a better basis for estimating the effects of the current scheme and possible improvements and extensions. At the same time, the proposal is important for the Norwegian Tax Administration to be able to comply with its obligations as a provider of support under the state aid rules.
Information on benefits in kind in connection with the purchase of shares at a discount (e.g. exercise of "ordinary" options):
NAV uses information about salary and other benefits to calculate unemployment benefits and check benefits such as sickness benefit, parental benefit, disability benefit and advance child support payments.
The Norwegian Tax Administration uses information about the benefit of exercising options to pre-complete the tax return and for control purposes.
Statistics Norway (SSB) uses the information for statistical purposes.
