Skatteetaten (Norwegian Tax Administration)

Backs Skatteetaten by administering tax deductions for qualifying innovation expenditure and reducing tax liability through annual filings.

Skatteetaten is Norway's tax administration, not a grant funder. Its role in this record is to process the SkatteFUNN research and development tax deduction, which gives eligible companies a 19 percent deduction on R&D costs up to NOK 25 million per year. Project pre-approval belongs to the Research Council of Norway, while Skatteetaten receives the approved project data and applies the deduction when the company files its annual tax return.

The mechanism is available to Norwegian businesses with tax liability, and the filing deadline for the deduction is 31 May. Companies must keep separate project accounts and timesheets, and firms without taxable income can receive the benefit as a cash refund. When state aid from SkatteFUNN is combined with other support, the final deduction can be reduced to stay within the applicable ceiling.

For applicants, the practical fit is documentation, not competition. Skatteetaten matters when a company already has eligible R&D spend and needs tax relief through a formal return; it does not award projects or run an open call. The route is therefore administrative and compliance-driven, which makes it useful for operating companies with recorded research costs but unsuitable for teams looking for a grant programme.