– I have shopped for less than NOK 350 from foreign shops before, but I would not do it again with the new rules. What I’ve bought is cool, but I hadn’t spent so much money now, says Even Bjørnsson Anda. – When I saw how much duty I had to pay, I thought: “Holy shit”, it was a lot, says Anda about a time when he shopped for over NOK 350. Photo: Philip Kollstrøm / news Until now, you have been able to buy goods for up to NOK 350 without having to pay value added tax and customs duties. But from 1 January it will end. In that case, the NOK 350 limit will be abolished. – For me, customs is a bad thing, because I have to pay more money. Having to pay customs duty for less than NOK 350 seems to me to be taking it too far, says Anda. Jarle Hammerstad, on the other hand, is satisfied that the 350 kroner limit will disappear in the new year. He is the industry policy leader in Virke. – We thought the border was a big problem, because you could shop without paying VAT in foreign shops, whereas in Norway you have to pay this. Flowing in goods that are not checked In April 2020 it was decided that the border should go away, and at the same time the solution was that what is known as the VOEC scheme was introduced. It is a register for foreign online shops. The scheme means that Norwegian private consumers pay value added tax at the time of purchase when they shop from a foreign online store. Jarle Hammerstad in Virke believes it is important that there is equal treatment for Norwegian and foreign shops when it comes to VAT. Photo: Virke – Low value goods have flowed in from China without it being checked whether they have paid value added tax, says Hammerstad. He says that many foreign online shops are registered in the VOEC scheme, but that there are still many missing. – It is difficult to check whether such shops actually pay VAT and whether the goods they sell are legal. Textile goods up to NOK 3,000 Virke has gone to great lengths to get the government to remove the exemption for goods under NOK 350, Hammerstad explains. The NOK 350 limit was actually removed on 1 April 2020, when the VOEC scheme was introduced. But due to the amount of cheap goods coming to Norway, a so-called declaration exception was introduced. Simply put, the customs and Post Office had to be given time to deal with all the goods to be checked. – In 2022, around 11 million shipments with a low value of NOK 0 to NOK 3,000 were reported digitally to the Customs Authority. A large part of these have stated that they have a value of less than NOK 350, says Thore Simenstad, communications advisor at the Customs Agency. But from 1 January onwards, there is now a stop to the limit of NOK 350. But not quite. The VOEC scheme allows textile goods to be purchased for up to NOK 3,000 from foreign websites. – Virke has asked the government and the Storting to remove this customs exemption as soon as possible, says Hammerstad.
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