Does Skatteetaten See My Accounts and Assets in Poland?
Are you wondering whether Skatteetaten (the Norwegian tax office) knows about your bank account, savings, apartment, or investments in Poland?
In this article, we explain what Skatteetaten can receive from Poland, when Norway's global tax liability applies to you, what must be included in your tax return, and what to do if you have not reported a Polish account or assets for several years.
Short answer - what Skatteetaten sees and what it does not
Skatteetaten can receive data from Poland about financial accounts held by Norwegian tax residents. The system works through CRS, an international standard for automatic exchange of information about financial accounts. Polish financial institutions identify accounts held by people who are tax residents of other countries, send the data to KAS, and KAS passes it on to the relevant countries. Norway is included in CRS reporting.
| Topic | How it works in practice |
|---|---|
| Polish bank account | Account data may be sent to Norway through CRS if the bank identifies you as a Norwegian tax resident. |
| Balance and interest | Reporting includes, among other things, the balance or value at the end of the year and certain income, such as interest. |
| Transfers Poland-Norway | CRS does not mean automatic reporting of every single transaction. We discuss the rules for transfers separately in the article Transfers Poland-Norway - what are the rules? Is tax payable? |
| Apartment, house, land plot in Poland | Real estate is usually not reported through CRS, but a Norwegian tax resident must report it in the Norwegian tax return. |
| Rental income in Poland | Rental income must be reported in Norway and settled according to Norwegian rules and the tax treaty. |
The most important rule is simple: the fact that Skatteetaten does not automatically have a complete picture of your assets in Poland does not relieve you of the duty to report them in your tax return.
Tax residence - when Norway taxes your worldwide assets
The obligation to report Polish accounts, savings, investments, and real estate depends primarily on tax residence. If you are a tax resident of Norway, you are taxed there on all income and assets, including those from Poland. This is known as global tax liability.
You become a tax resident of Norway when you stay in Norway:
- more than 183 days in any 12-month period, or
- more than 270 days in a 36-month period.
Every day of stay in Norway counts toward the limit, including a partial day. If you exceed 183 days in the year you arrive, tax residence arises from the first day of your stay in Norway. If the days are spread across two tax years, tax residence arises from 1 January of the second year. Under the 270-day rule, tax residence arises from 1 January of the year in which you exceed the limit.
You can check your tax residence in advance in our tool here.
Typical, most common situations:
| Your situation | Tax consequence in Norway |
|---|---|
| You have lived and worked in Norway for several years | You are usually a Norwegian tax resident and must report assets and income from Poland. |
| You work in Norway for a short time and do not meet the residence thresholds | You have limited tax liability, meaning you mainly report income and assets connected with Norway. |
| You moved out of Norway | Moving out or changing your address does not automatically end Norwegian tax residence. We explain more in the article Moving out of Norway? Read this to learn what you need to do! |
| Under Norwegian rules you are a resident of Norway, but under the tax treaty you are a resident of Poland | In the tax return, income and assets must be reported correctly and treaty residence must be justified, usually with a certificate of residence from Poland. |
Residence rules follow Norwegian regulations and are described in the official information on tax residence when moving to or from Norway. In the Norway-Poland relationship, the double taxation treaty is also important, as it regulates, among other things, taxation of real estate and exchange of tax information.
CRS - what data from Polish accounts can reach Norway
CRS covers accounts and financial products held with financial institutions. In practice, this mainly means banks, brokerage houses, funds, and some insurance products with investment value. You can find the official CRS and FATCA rules on Skatteetaten's page about automatic exchange of financial information and on the Polish page about automatic exchange of tax information.
| Type of data | What may be reported |
|---|---|
| Identifying data | First and last name, address, date of birth, country of tax residence, tax identification number, and sometimes Norwegian fødselsnummer or D-nummer. |
| Account data | Account number, account type, name of the financial institution. |
| Account value | Balance or value of the account at the end of the tax year. |
| Financial income | Interest, dividends, other payments, and certain income from the account. |
| Sale of financial assets | Gross proceeds from the sale of financial assets, if the account and product are subject to reporting. |
| Account closure | Information that the account was closed during the given year. |
CRS includes, among other things:
- bank and deposit accounts,
- investment accounts,
- shares, bonds, funds, and other assets held in a financial account,
- some life insurance policies with surrender value,
- entity accounts and the data of controlling persons, if the reporting conditions are met.
CRS works like annual financial reporting. Skatteetaten does not receive the full history of every click in online banking through CRS, nor an automatic report of every card payment. However, the tax office can compare the data received from Poland with what you entered in the skattemelding for the relevant year.
