Membership in the National Insurance Scheme and national insurance contributions when you are moving abroad

When you move abroad or are going to work abroad for a shorter or longer period, this can affect your membership in the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme. Here you find information about how you can check whether you’re a member of the National Insurance Scheme and what your options to change national insurance contributions in your tax return are.

National insurance contributions

Membership in the National Insurance Scheme is the key to rights from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). National insurance contributions are contributions you pay on your salary, business income, disability benefit and pension. National insurance contributions finance the National Insurance Scheme.

See NAV’s website for information on the National Insurance Scheme and what you must do when you move abroad.

Does this apply to me?

This applies to everybody who moves abroad for a short or long period of time, regardless of the reason. This could be, for example, to study, to work or because you want to spend part of your retirement abroad.

When you work or for other reasons stay abroad, you could lose your membership in the National Insurance Scheme.

What you need to do

You must log in to NAV’s website to find out what applies to you.

If you’re not a member, as a rule, you do not have to pay national insurance contributions. However, there are exceptions:

  • If you’re receiving disability benefit or retirement pension and are living in another EU/EEA country, you must pay national insurance contributions in certain cases, even if you’re not a member of the National Insurance Scheme. You can read about this on NAV’s website.

There are some exceptions:

  • If you’re a voluntary member, you must pay an additional contribution directly to NAV on top of the national insurance contributions that you pay together with the taxes. NAV will deduct/collect this additional tax.
  • If you’re not resident for tax purposes in Norway, you must pay the entire contribution directly to NAV. NAV will deduct/collect the contribution.

Once you’ve found out whether to pay national insurance contributions or not, and if so, to whom, you must log in to your tax return and check whether the national insurance contributions are correct.

You can change if the national insurance contributions are incorrect

If you do not have to pay national insurance contributions, or if your tax assessment shows a higher amount of national insurance contributions than what you must pay, you can change this yourself in the tax return. If you only pay national insurance contributions directly to NAV, you can also delete the national insurance contributions from your tax return.

You can make changes regarding the national insurance contributions when you’re logged in to your tax return. You must add or change the income in question under the topic Employment, national insurance and pensions.