Of all the companies in the world, Norway’s Equinor will pay the second largest in taxes in 2021. Only Saudi Aramco will pay more, according to an analysis by Nordea fund manager Robert Ness.
And yes, we are talking about pure money. 182 billion NOK to be exact.
Much more than the world’s largest company Apple, Google and other global giants are paying this year – a solid record. Equinor has never before paid much tax.
The analysis comes from an algorithm that monitors nearly 100,000 companies around the world.
How much is 182 billion kroner?
– This corresponds to 67,400 NOK per employee in Norway, says Robert Ness.
In total, everyone who has a job in Norway pays NOK 580 billion in income tax in an ordinary year. While Equinor is likely to pay 182 billion.
– If we had three companies like Equinor, we could in principle drop income tax altogether, says Ness.
Then it must be said that not all of the 182 billion kroner from Equinor end up in Norway. More on that below.
Director of Investment Robert Ness at Nordea Markets.
far from normal
Equinor’s huge tax revenue is a far cry from the norm.
The main reason there will be more this year is the maximum gas prices Equinor is now achieving in the market. Profits are likely to double. Some analysts believe a pre-tax profit of NOK 300 billion.
Norway is the real winner in the energy crisis in Europe,
– Of this, at least 140 billion NOK is profits from gas, notes Robert Ness.
– If we distribute this money evenly throughout the country, it will be 60 thousand kroner per family. So Norway is the real winner in Europe’s energy crisis, notes the fund manager.
The records come after the first full calendar year for Anders Obedal as Equinor’s best manager.
Gas for billions: Equinor chief financial officer Ulrika Fearns and oil fund manager Nikolai Tangin are pictured at the bottom of the Troll A money machine in October. Photo: Ole Bjørn Bratland/Equinor.
Equinor will be a leader in the green transformation and will continue to contribute to every community of which we are a part. We are proud to deliver results that enable us to contribute to society through tax payments at this level, Obedal tells TV 2.
Equinor confirms: More records this year
– Obedal adds that after a year in which the Norwegian authorities contributed a temporary tax package to maintain the normal level of activity during the pandemic, those tax payments look very good.
Equinor pays tax to Norway continuously with a delay of six months. In the fourth quarter alone, the company paid out a total of NOK 55.5 billion.
– The single tax payment exceeded NOK 40 billion, the largest single payment in the company’s history, Obedal said.
Since Equinor is listed in both the United States and Norway, it cannot comment on final figures for 2021, but at the end of the third quarter, the company was expected to pay 130 billion in taxes to Norway, Obidal states.
The highest in the company’s history
Norway’s tax of more than $130 billion for the year will be the highest in the company’s history. The last previous payment was about 120 billion NOK in 2012
Robert Ness’s estimate of 182 billion applies to Equinors sum Tax payments in 2021. Last year, about 40 percent of this money went to other countries – mostly to Angola and Azerbaijan.
The discrepancy between the above schedule and multiple tax payments in 2021 is also the discrepancy between two completely different years.
While 2021 will be a historically strong year for Equinor, lower commodity prices and heavy losses in the US have contributed to 2020 remaining as one of the weaker years.
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