Taxes and Finance | This check is urgent: – Tax card guess

Two weeks ago, your 2024 tax card arrived — and it shows how much tax you'll have to pay next year. But information is calculations, not conclusions.

Because interest rates changed frequently in 2023, the amount you can deduct from tax has also changed significantly.

But your tax card hasn't necessarily kept up with all the changes or other events that affect your finances. Did you, for example, change your job or buy a house at the end of the year?

Then you have to pay special attention. If the deduction is set too low or the paycheck is too high, employers may withhold too much tax from the paycheck.

In other words: If you correct the amounts, you will receive a higher salary than the tax card indicates. Making these changes takes a few minutes at most.

You can change your tax card at any time, but if you want to avoid starting the year with too much (or too little) tax, you should correct your tax card well before your first paycheck.

-An educated guess

We entered 2023 with a prime rate of 2.75 percent and exit the year with a prime rate of 4.5 percent. As a result, the interest deduction has changed dramatically. One of the most important elements in the tax card is the size of the interest deduction.

Taxpayers' Association Nettavisen has reported that a record number of people have changed their tax card in 2023 – mainly due to all the jumps in interest rates throughout the year, most recently on Thursday 14 December.

A tax return is a qualified guess of the income, deductions, debts and assets you will have in the coming year. You should check the information carefully, says tax consultant Kjell Magne Ryland at the Nettavisen Taxpayers Association.

Installment: The payslip you receive in December shows how much salary you received throughout the year. Make sure this amount matches your tax card. If you expect your salary to rise or fall, you should change your salary income. You can too Check the information reported by the employer to the Swedish Tax Agency.

pension: Check the numbers you get in the overview from NAV or others who pay pensions.

Debts and/or assets: Check the numbers you get from the bank with an overview of debts, debt interest and any assets.

Sickness benefits, unemployment benefits, parental benefits and other benefits from net asset value: Check the numbers you get in the NAV overview.

– Avoid paying too much/too little

If you see any deviations from the actual numbers, you should change the card immediately.

– Then you avoid paying too much or too little tax throughout the year. If you have limited financial resources, it may be especially important to verify information, so you don't have too little money each month or unexpected back tax, he recommends.

The numbers on the 2024 tax card are taken from various sources.

– Don't think that everything is true

Income information from the employer is typically October 2023 income multiplied by twelve, adjusted for an expected wage increase of 4.9 percent.

If you have loans or bank deposits, the interest deduction and interest income figures will be taken from your 2022 tax return, but adjusted for increased interest rates.

-The information on the tax card is partially “retroactive,” making it especially important to check the basis if big things happen to your finances in 2023 or 2024.

Remember, you can change your tax card throughout the income year.

– Therefore, if over the next year you see that your basis changes, you should consider whether there is a need to change the tax card. Redland says that it is not a good solution to assume that everything is updated automatically and that everything written there is correct.

– Maybe a mistake

If you can tick one or more of the points below, then the tax card you receive on Friday is incorrect.

• In the first year you are the holder of an old-age or disability pension.
• Your first year of full-time work.
• If you have major loan changes – or high loans.
• The first year of rental housing is taxable.
• Buy or sell a house.
• If you have inherited a larger amount (it can provide a higher income/return and wealth from benefits).
• If you have significant changes in salary income, plus overtime or bonus (the percentage may be incorrect).
• Job Change – Changes in travel distance/traveler status.
• Change in living situation as a result of separation or death.
• Was laid off or fired.

– If you buy an expensive house and increase your debt by one million, this in itself will increase the interest deduction by NOK 60,000, provided that the loan interest rate is six percent. If the tax card does not change, you will separately pay approximately NOK 13,000 in excess tax over the course of the year, says Ryland.