The defense secretary said he was getting along – turning to questions about taxation

Chief of Defense Erik Kristofferson said it was an accident. Now he says something else – after the couple was asked about taxes.

In May 2020, it became known to everyone that Erik Kristofferson will become Minister of Defense.

Upon his accession, Christophersen moved into the commandant’s lavish residence at Akershus Castle.

Five days before word broke, the fiancée of the Chief of Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Lynne Therese Johansen Christoffersen, made an agreement with the only brother of the Minister of Defense:

For NOK 10,000 a month, Frode Kristoffersen had to rent a room in her Oslo apartment as a boarding house.

When the Chief of Defense moved into the Commandant’s House in Akershus Castle, his wife said she lived instead in a 53-square-meter flat in Bislet, with one bedroom, where the Chief of Defense’s brother was also a tenant.

The information that remains is crucial to her being able to sell the house the following year without paying tax on the million-dollar profit.

Had she moved in with the Chief of Defense at the Commander’s Residence, she would have paid NOK 605,000 in tax on the sale.

Erik Kristofferson appeared in a number of interviews in the summer of 2020, where he said he was cohabiting with his fiancée.

Among the many interviews in which the same thing appeared, these two were:

• On August 26th stock NRK Personal interview with the Chief of Defense at Akershus Fortress. There, the two are referred to as cohabitants, and their morning routine is described.
• On August 16 he writes attackersthe local newspaper from the Chief of Defence’s home town of Narvik, reports that Johansen is cohabiting with Lynne Therese.

Now the Minister of Defense turns:

– The use of the term “symbiont” was not accurate, and it would be more correct to say “orator”, wrote Chief Defense Officer Eric Kristoffersen in an email to VG.

The email was sent from the Communications Department to the Norwegian Armed Forces, which also forwards replies to Frode Christoffersen and Lynne Therese Johansen Christoffersen.

One in the bedroom and one in the living room

The brother of the Chief of Defense, Frode Kristoffersen, held a high position in the Norwegian intelligence service when the lease was signed. He was entitled to passenger accommodation while working in Oslo.

Payment of NOK 10,000 per month.

The bill, which came to a total of NOK 160,000 for 16 months, was taken up by the Armed Forces.

The two brothers lived together for nine months in a 53-square-meter apartment, Lynne Therese Johansen Christoffersen told VG.

– The apartment has only one bedroom. How did you analyze the practicalities of living there at the same time?

– Both of them were far away. Frode Kristoffersen returned home to Elverum as often as he could. When the two were in the apartment at the same time, the living room was used for sleeping, wrote Lynne Therese Johansen Christoffersen.

Tenant Frode Kristoffersen, a second day in command of the Norwegian Armed Forces Special Forces, says the scheme “worked out really well”.

– I drove home to Elverum as often as I could, preferably a few times a week, Kristoffersen writes.

Sold tax free

Where the Secretary of Defense’s fiancee lives has an impact on her tax bill:

When she sold the apartment and ended the lease with her brother-in-law in the fall of 2021, she made a profit of NOK 2.75 million. She told VG that she was not taxed.

The reason for this is that she was living in the apartment at the same time that she rented a room to her husband’s brother.

In order for you to be able to sell the condo without being taxed on the gain, you must have lived in the condo for at least 12 of the last 24 months.

If not, the gain would result in a tax bill of NOK 605,000.

VG confronted the Minister of Defense with the fact that in a series of interviews with him it was revealed that he and his fiancée were cohabiting, during the same period she says she lived with her brother-in-law.

Now the defense secretary says he spoke inaccurately to the media in the summer of 2020.

The VG asked Linn Therece Johansen Kristoffersen and the Minister of Defense if they discussed tax issues when selling a house between themselves.

– I can’t recall any specific discussions about rental tax matters, but I assume this was a topic in connection with filing the 2021 tax return, the Secretary of Defense wrote.

– There were no major discussions on tax issues, his wife writes.