Tax authorities will tax solar panels – E24

Tax authorities will tax everyone with rooftop solar cells as a business owner. The plans face strong opposition.

NHO, the solar cell industry and SV are now warning that tax issues could put an end to solar cells on private homes, writes Class struggle.

The vast majority of electricity generated by private solar cells is used for private consumption, but on occasion, especially in the summer, plants will sometimes produce more electricity than a single consumer needs.

The excess energy is then sold back to the electricity grid, the newspaper wrote, and it is this sale that the tax agency believes, in a new assessment, should be taxed as capital income at a rate of 22 percent.

The NHO believes this means many will choose to refrain from installing solar cells.

For many people, taxation means that putting solar cells on roofs will be a money-losing venture, says Andreas Strömsheim Aamodt, business policy subject manager at Nelfo, which regulates electricity companies in the NHO.

Nelfo calculated that the tax claim would exceed the subsidy Enova provides to homeowners who build rooftop solar panels.

Lars Hultbrecken at SV fears that this will mean a complete brake on the construction of solar cells on Norwegian rooftops. He believes that ordinary people with rooftop solar cells cannot be treated as businessmen.

Managing director Andreas Torsheim at solar cell supplier Otovo believes that in the vast majority of cases, a few hundred Swedish krona, with a maximum of a few thousand Swedish krona, will need to be collected from the tax authorities annually.