Tax rates and bracket tax

Two taxes on two bases

Income tax in Norway has two parts that rest on different bases, and that is the key to reading your payslip. The bracket tax (trinnskatt) is charged on your whole personal income — gross pay, with no deductions. The tax on general income is charged instead on income after the minimum standard deduction and the personal allowance, a lower base. This page covers the five steps of the bracket tax and the flat rate on general income.

Five steps in the bracket tax

The bracket tax is progressive and has five steps. A higher step applies only to the part of income above a threshold — never to the whole salary. That is the most important misconception to clear up: crossing a threshold taxes only the kroner above it harder, not your income from the first krone. No bracket tax is charged on the first 226 100 kr. For 2026 the steps look like this:

• 1,7 % on income above 226 100 kr.
• 4 % on income above 318 300 kr.
• 13,7 % on income above 725 050 kr.
• 16,8 % on income above 980 100 kr.
• 17,8 % on income above 1 467 200 kr.

The steps are marginal: the rate the next krone earned is hit by — the marginal rate — is therefore higher than the average rate you actually pay on the whole salary. The calculator on the home page shows both, so you can see what a pay rise means after tax.

Marginal rate and average rate

Because the bracket tax is a staircase, it is worth telling two percentages apart. Your marginal rate is the rate the next krone you earn is hit by; your average rate is the total tax divided by your whole salary. The average is always lower, because the lowest kroner are either tax-free or taxed more gently: no bracket tax is charged on the first 226 100 kr, and both the minimum standard deduction and the personal allowance shield part of the base for the tax on general income. When you get a pay rise, it is the marginal rate — not the average — that decides how much you keep. And because a higher step only makes the kroner above the threshold dearer, a raise always leaves more net than before; you never lose by earning more.

The flat rate on general income

On top of the bracket tax comes the tax on general income, a flat rate of 22 %. It is charged not on personal income but on general income — personal income after the minimum standard deduction, with the personal allowance taken off before the rate applies. So you cannot simply add the bracket-tax rate and the 22 % into one percentage: they rest on different bases.

The action zone: a lower rate in Troms and Finnmark

If you live in the action zone (Troms and Finnmark), the rate on general income is lower — 18,5 % against 22 % elsewhere — and you get the Finnmark allowance (45 000 kr) deducted from general income. The bracket tax, by contrast, is the same as in the rest of the country for income year 2026 (the earlier reduced step rate applied up to and including income year 2024). The calculator has its own action-zone toggle.

National insurance comes on top

Alongside the two taxes, national insurance is charged on personal income. All rates on this page are those in force for 2026.

The full content for this page is still in preparation and subject to review.