A-melding: monthly payroll reporting in Norway

The problem

Norway consolidated five separate employer reports into a single monthly filing: the a-melding. Every employer paying wages in Norway must file one — there is no exemption for foreign companies, no minimum employee count, and no grace period for new employers. The first a-melding is due the month after the first salary payment.

What it contains

Each a-melding reports, per employee: gross salary paid, tax withheld (table-based or PAYE), social security contributions (both employee and employer), pension contributions, employment start and end dates, working hours, and relevant income codes. The codes differ between ordinary taxation and PAYE, and between workers with and without A1 certificates.

Filing deadline

The 5th of the month following the salary period. January salaries are reported by February 5th. If the 5th falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. There is no extension mechanism.

Penalties for late filing

Tvangsmulkt (compulsory fines) are issued automatically — the system does not warn before penalizing. The fine accumulates daily until the a-melding is filed. For a small employer this can quickly reach several thousand NOK per employee per month of delay.

How foreign employers file

Via payroll software: most Norwegian payroll systems (Tripletex, Visma, PowerOffice, Duett) generate and submit a-melding directly to Altinn. This is the recommended approach. Via Altinn directly: possible but manual and error-prone, especially for employers unfamiliar with Norwegian income codes and contribution rules. Via an authorized accountant: the most reliable option for foreign employers — an accounting firm like Accounts Lab handles payroll setup, a-melding filing, and ensures correct codes from the first month.

Common mistakes

Using the wrong income code for PAYE vs ordinary taxation. Forgetting to report employer's social security contributions separately. Not reporting workers who started mid-month. Filing after the worker has left Norway without submitting the final a-melding with the end date. Each of these triggers corrections, penalties, or both.

Connection to other obligations

A-melding data feeds into the worker's tax assessment, the employer's contribution settlement, NAV (social security authority) records, and Statistics Norway. Getting a-melding wrong doesn't just create a penalty — it creates downstream problems in tax cards, social security membership, and pension records that are harder to fix than the original filing.