Norway Inheritance Tax 2026 (Skatt på arv)

Norway has no inheritance tax and no gift tax. Parliament abolished them (arveavgift) with effect from 1 January 2014, and the date of death or of the gift decides which rules apply. You pay nothing to receive an inheritance and you do not report it to the Tax Administration as an inheritance. The tax comes later, in three ways: when you sell what you received, through the wealth tax on what you own on 1 January, and as a small fee when you register a title to property. This calculator shows the first and the last.

The rule: you take over the cost price

The main rule is tax continuity. You step into the cost price (inngangsverdi) of the person you inherited from or were given the asset by. When you sell, the whole increase since they bought it is taxable, including the part that arose before you owned it. Losses are deductible if a gain would have been taxable. A sale by the estate itself is always taxable, and that gain goes in the deceased's or the estate's tax return, not in yours.

How each asset is treated when you sell

The exception for homes and cabins

If the deceased or donor could have sold the home tax-free when they died or gave it away, continuity does not apply (Taxation Act section 9-7, fifth paragraph). Your cost price is the estimated sale value at that date. That means the increase up to that date is never taxed, and only changes in value while you own it can be taxed. For a home, the deceased could have sold tax-free if they had owned it for more than 1 year and lived in it for at least 1 year of the last 2 years. For a cabin, if they had owned it for more than 5 years and used it as a holiday home in at least 5 of the last 8 years.

Your own tax-free sale

The tax-free rules for the sale of a home apply to you as seller, and the heir does not take over the deceased's time as owner or resident. You qualify if you have owned it for more than 1 year and lived in it for at least 1 year of the last 2 years yourself. So if you move in for a while, the gain can become tax-free even if the deceased could not have sold tax-free. If you rent it out or leave it empty and sell, the gain is taxable, and a loss is deductible only when a gain would have been taxable. Use the tax on selling a home calculator to work out the tax-free dates.

Worked example: an inherited home

You inherit a home worth NOK 5,000,000. The deceased bought it for NOK 2,000,000 and lived in it, so they could have sold tax-free. You rent it out and sell it for NOK 5,500,000 with NOK 100,000 of selling costs, without meeting the tax-free conditions yourself. Your cost price is the market value, NOK 5,000,000. The gain is NOK 400,000 and the tax is NOK 88,000. If the deceased could not have sold tax-free, your cost price would be NOK 2,000,000, the gain NOK 3,400,000 and the tax NOK 748,000. If you live in the home long enough to meet the conditions yourself, the tax is NOK 0.

Same home as above, with NOK 100,000 of selling costs and without meeting the tax-free conditions yourself.

Inherited shares

Shares always follow continuity. If you inherit shares with a cost price of NOK 150,000 that are worth NOK 400,000 and sell them at that price, the gain is NOK 250,000 and the tax is NOK 94,600, before any unused tax-free allowance passed on from the deceased. Ask the bank or the fund manager for the cost price and allowance statement, because you must be able to document the deceased's cost price. See also the share sale tax calculator.

Stamp duty when property changes hands

Registering a title to freehold property triggers stamp duty (dokumentavgift) of 2.5% of the market value, and a registration fee of NOK 545 for a deed. Statutory heirs are exempt for their legal share, and so is a surviving spouse. Duty applies to the part of an inheritance beyond a legal share (so someone who inherits only under a will pays on the full value), to shares you take over from other heirs (for example when one heir keeps the family home), and to a gift or an advance on inheritance, except between spouses. On a home worth NOK 5,000,000 the duty is NOK 125,000. The calculator above works it out. For sales and purchases, see the stamp duty calculator.

Wealth tax and property tax on what you inherit

Assets you inherit become part of your net wealth from the next 1 January. You pay wealth tax only if your total net wealth is above the threshold, NOK 1,900,000 for a single person for income year 2026. Use the wealth tax calculator. Some municipalities also charge property tax on homes and cabins, see the property tax calculator.

If you have just moved to Norway, or live abroad

• Inheritance from abroad: Norway does not tax it. If you are tax resident in Norway and inherit property abroad, it must be declared in your tax return at its market value when you inherited it. A broker can value it, or you can use foreign public documents.
• Foreign inheritance or gift tax: some countries tax an inheritance or a gift on the estate or on the person who receives it. This page does not describe any foreign rules. Ask the tax authority in the relevant country whether you owe anything and whether a tax treaty applies.
• Heirs living abroad: for property in Norway, you can be liable for Norwegian tax on its taxable value, on rental income and on gain from a sale, even if you are not tax resident. If shares, fund units and similar assets pass from a Norwegian estate to an heir who lives abroad, exit tax can apply when the net latent gain is above NOK 100,000: the estate is liable and the heir takes over the liability. For an estate of a person who was not tax resident in Norway, Skatteetaten's guidance says to answer the home-sale questions as if the deceased could have sold tax-free. Check your case with Skatteetaten.
• Who inherits: the Inheritance Act (arveloven) and any will decide who inherits what. That is a legal question outside this calculator.

What this calculator does not cover

It does not work out who inherits or in what shares, and it does not cover deaths before 1 January 2014, when inheritance tax still applied. It leaves out farms and forestry, business assets, foreign property, life insurance and pension payouts, the estate's own tax return, a gift that is partly a sale, and non-residents' own tax position. For farms the rule is that your cost price is limited to 75% of estimated sale value, and you should ask Skatteetaten. The results are estimates: your cost price documents and the valuation date decide the real tax.