Former Block Watne owner Lars Nilsen has also settled in Switzerland. The billionaire announced his move just before the revised state budget was presented.
The line of rich Norwegians who leave the red-green Norway and move to Switzerland is getting longer and longer.
The most recent departure is former Block Watne owner Lars Nilsen, who left the country just two days before the state budget was presented.
More recently, several rich Norwegians have taken the same path. They leave Norway and the Norwegian tax regime. The most famous is Aker owner Kjell Inge Røkke, who moved in 2022.
According to Finansavisen, Nilsen, like several other wealthy Norwegians, feared a new exit tax in the revised state budget that was presented on Thursday. That is, a tax that must be paid when moving out of Norway.
Therefore, Nilsen may have considered that it was urgent to carry out the move.
Switzerland partly has a low wealth tax, which means that Norwegians can move to the country and escape Swiss wealth tax.
According to Kapital, Nilsen was worth NOK 1.3 billion in 2021.
Finansavisen writes that they know that Nilsen sent a notice of relocation on Tuesday, two days before the budget was presented – but without any tax bombs this time. Nilsen was in Switzerland when Finansavisen contacted him, he does not reject Finansavisen’s information, but wishes to remain silent.
I have nothing to say. Not as of now, says Nilsen.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) told Dagens Næringsliv that the Støre government’s work on tax reforms is over for this parliamentary term.
There will be no big, new tax measures, said Vedum.
As all these wealthy and successful Norwegians move, the country misses out on large tax revenues.
But how painful in the long run it can be that Norway loses resourceful, enterprising people who have shown that they can create businesses and jobs around them.
What Norway primarily achieves with the relocations is that some red-green politicians can show that “the differences are getting smaller”.