NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Markus Nilssen, Vanessa Kalvenes and Marcus Cordero-Moss, BAHR
8. Accounting Rules and Issues 8.1 Legal Issues With Securitisation Accounting Rules The recently adopted legislation does not include any securitisation-specific accounting rules. In general, the accounting analysis would be independent of the legal analysis. Consequently, a securitisation may be considered off-balance sheet from a legal perspective but on-balance sheet for accounting purposes. With respect to the de-recognition of the under - lying financial assets in the originator’s balance sheet, the preparatory work to the recently adopted Norwegian legislation refers to the accounting for financial instruments under Inter - national Financial Reporting Standards 9 (IFRS 9). 8.2 Dealing With Legal Issues As already noted, there is no active securitisation market in Norway for the time being. However, it is not market practice in Norway for legal opin - ions to also address accounting matters.
in the relevant mortgage registers and there are maximum fees for electronic mass-registration of multiple title transfers. 7.2 Taxes on Profit As outlined in 6.2 SPEs , it is expected that Nor - wegian securitisations will utilise SPEs regis - tered outside of Norway. Generally, Norwegian income tax would not apply to the non-Norwe - gian SPE’s income which is derived from the acquired underlying financial assets. 7.3 Withholding Taxes A 15% withholding tax applies to interest pay - ments made to related parties in low tax jurisdic - tions. Payments to entities genuinely established and conducting real economic activity in an EU/ EEA member state are exempt from such with - holding tax. 7.4 Other Taxes The Norwegian legislation implementing the Securitisation Regulation does not address the tax treatment of securitisation transactions. Cur - rently, there is no active securitisation market in Norway and historically the activity in the Norwe - gian securitisation market has been low mainly due to an impractical framework. Thus, there is very little guidance and certainty on the tax treat - ment of securitisation transactions in Norway. 7.5 Obtaining Legal Opinions There is no active securitisation market in Nor - way for the time being.
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