Selling to Norway: VAT, VOEC and shipping checks for UK retailers

Norway is in the European Economic Area, but not the EU. Before offering delivery, decide which Norwegian VAT and import route fits the order.

Before you send: five checks

1. Identify whether the customer is buying as a consumer or a business.
2. Check each product’s value and whether it is excluded from VOEC.
3. Confirm who handles Norwegian VAT: your shop, a qualifying marketplace or the import process.
4. Ask your shipping provider how the correct tax reference and product data reach Norwegian Customs.
5. Make any charges payable on arrival clear to the customer before purchase.

The NOK 3,000 limit is per item

Use the item’s value in Norwegian kroner at the point of sale. Leave shipping and other extra costs out of the eligibility test, but include them when calculating VAT. Do not use a fixed pound or euro equivalent.

For example, two separately sold eligible items worth NOK 1,800 each can travel together under VOEC even though their combined value is NOK 3,600. An individual item worth NOK 3,000 or more does not qualify.

Keep non-VOEC items separate if you want the eligible items to retain VOEC treatment. A mixed shipment can otherwise require ordinary clearance for the whole parcel. Do not artificially split a product sold as one unit to get below the limit.

Which goods are excluded?

Food and drinks, including non-medicinal dietary supplements, are outside VOEC. So are goods subject to excise duties and restricted or prohibited goods. A low price does not override these exclusions; medicines need their own checks.

Norway’s standard VAT rate is 25%, but other rates and zero-rating exist. Check the product’s treatment rather than applying 25% to everything. This guide concerns Norway’s ordinary VAT territory; do not apply it unchanged to Svalbard or Jan Mayen.

Registration, marketplaces and business customers

For qualifying overseas sellers, registration is not simply a convenience. Monitor the NOK 50,000 turnover threshold over a rolling 12 months. The Tax Administration’s current registration page says to register no later than reaching that amount in VAT-liable sales to Norwegian consumers; eligible businesses can register from their first sale.

Where a marketplace is treated as the supplier under Norway’s rules, it handles the VAT for those sales. Confirm that arrangement and its shipping instructions; do not collect the same VAT again. Your own website sales are a separate responsibility. Stock held in Norway or a Norwegian establishment can require ordinary VAT registration instead.

Business-to-business sales are not VOEC sales. If the buyer identifies itself as a business, do not charge VOEC VAT; obtain its organisation details and agree the normal import arrangements. The Norwegian buyer handles the applicable import VAT. If you wrongly collected VOEC VAT from a business, refund and correct it.

The VOEC number must travel electronically

Provide the correct seven-digit VOEC number through your carrier’s electronic booking/data process, together with item descriptions, values and quantities. The carrier must pass the information to Norwegian Customs. Writing the number on the parcel or invoice alone does not meet the electronic requirement.

Norwegian Customs’ operator guidance also requires a six-digit commodity code for each item line. Ask the provider to confirm the data fields and onward transmission—not just that it can print a label. The operator handles that border connection; confirm what you must supply through its service.

Customs clearance and paperwork still depend on the route

Correctly electronically notified VOEC shipments receive simplified Norwegian clearance without an ordinary import declaration. Goods covered by VOEC are exempt from customs duty, with VAT dealt with at sale where applicable.

Outside VOEC, ordinary import procedures apply. Import VAT, possible customs duty and the carrier’s clearance fee may be payable. Confirm who is the importer and who pays before promising a delivered price.

Norwegian simplification does not remove UK export obligations. Follow the rules for your postal or courier service, prepare accurate invoice and product information, and check any required export declaration, licence or certificate. There is no single paperwork checklist that fits every transport method.

For ordinary imports, classification and origin matter. Preferential treatment under the UK–Norway agreement requires qualifying origin and supporting evidence; dispatch from a UK warehouse is not enough.

If the customer is charged VAT twice

For a VOEC sale, obtain evidence of the VAT paid at import, refund the VAT you collected at checkout, document the refund and correct the VOEC return. If the marketplace collected it, direct the customer to that marketplace’s process. Do not promise that a carrier’s separate fee will automatically be refunded.

VOEC VAT is reported and paid quarterly. Keep the official reporting deadlines in your accounts calendar.

Put the checks into your shipping process

Test a sample order from checkout through to the carrier record. Give your customer-service team a clear route for tax queries, and keep evidence alongside the order. Use our pre-dispatch checklist and customs description examples for the everyday preparation.

Official sources

Checked on 20 October 2026. This is a newly published explanation of existing requirements, not an announcement that VOEC began on this date.

• Norwegian Tax Administration: VOEC registration and reporting
• Norwegian Tax Administration: sending VOEC goods and correcting double VAT
• Norwegian Tax Administration: detailed VOEC guidelines (PDF)
• Norwegian Tax Administration: business-to-business sales (PDF)
• Norwegian Tax Administration: VAT rates
• Norwegian Customs: VOEC eligibility and customs treatment (Norwegian)
• Norwegian Customs: electronic VOEC notification (Norwegian)
• GOV.UK: countries in the EU and EEA
• GOV.UK: exporting goods from the UK
• GOV.UK: trade with Norway and rules of origin