September 7, 2026 · ← Blogg

VAT for restaurants and cafés in Norway 2026 — 15%, 25% and the pitfalls

Few things cause more headaches for new restaurant owners in Norway than value added tax (MVA). The same coffee can carry two different VAT rates depending on whether the guest drinks it at the table or carries it out the door. Sell at the wrong rate for a year and a tax audit can cost you tens of thousands of kroner in back taxes and penalties. This guide walks through which rates apply to restaurants, cafés and bars in 2026, how to set up your till so it is right automatically, and which mistakes the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten) finds most often during audits.

The three rates you need to know

In 2026 Norway has three VAT rates relevant to the hospitality industry. The standard rate is 25%, the reduced rate for foodstuffs is 15%, and the low rate of 12% applies to passenger transport, cinema and accommodation, among other things. For a restaurant or café, the first two are what matter day to day.

The main rule is simple to state but easy to get wrong in practice: catering services (serveringstjenester) are taxed at 25%. Sales of foodstuffs that are not part of a catering service, typically take-away, are taxed at 15%. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco are not considered foodstuffs for VAT purposes and are always 25%, whether sold at the table or in a bag to go.

If you also offer accommodation, for example an inn with rooms, the 12% rate applies to the room rent. Breakfast included in the room price must, however, be separated out and treated as a catering service at 25%. That is a topic of its own, but worth mentioning because many who start combined operations forget it.

What exactly is a "catering service"?

Skatteetaten defines a catering service as serving food or drink where conditions are arranged for consumption on the premises. What matters is not whether the guest actually sits down, but whether you offer facilities for it: tables, chairs, benches, a bar counter, cutlery, plates, glasses. If you have a dining area, the starting point is that everything you sell to guests who eat there is a catering service at 25%.

Examples that are clearly catering: a guest orders lunch and eats at the table; coffee served in a porcelain cup at the counter; a buffet on the premises; a birthday party eating in a private room at your place. All of this is 25% on food and drink.

Examples that are clearly foodstuff sales at 15%: a guest buys a baguette and a juice in paper packaging and leaves; ready meals in a chilled cabinet to take home; bakery goods sold over the counter with no seating on site; sales of coffee beans or your own granola in a bag. Here either the facilities or the intention to eat on site is missing.

An important nuance: simple food outlets without seating, such as a hot dog stand or a kiosk, can in principle sell everything at 15%. Put a couple of bar stools by a small table and it tips over into catering. The line is whether you "arrange for" eating there. If in doubt about your concept, write to Skatteetaten and ask for a guidance statement before opening. It is free and gives you cover.

Take-away and mixed sales: the coffee with two prices

The classic example is the coffee bar. A guest buys a cappuccino for 55 kroner. If he drinks it by the window, it is a catering service and 11 kroner of the amount is VAT (25% of a net 44). If he takes it away in a paper cup, it is a foodstuff sale and the VAT portion is about 7.17 kroner (15% of a net 47.83). Same product, same price to the customer, but different tax and therefore different net revenue for you.

Most cafés in practice choose to keep the same retail price regardless and take the gain on take-away. Some choose a lower take-away price to nudge customers toward the faster option. Both are legal, but you must register the correct rate in the till every time.

What is not legal is registering everything as take-away because it gives a higher net. During an audit, Skatteetaten compares the share of take-away sales against the size of the premises, number of seats, opening hours and industry averages. If you have 40 seats and 85% take-away in the books, you will get questions.

Practical tip: always ask "eat here or take away?" before you enter the sale, and make it a mandatory choice in the till. Then it becomes a habit for staff and traceable in the journal.

Alcohol, soft drinks and the grey areas

Alcoholic drinks above 0.7% ABV are always 25%, including take-away and including as part of a bundle. If you sell a pizza and a beer for collection, the pizza is 15% and the beer is 25%. The till must split this at line level on the receipt.

Non-alcoholic beer, mineral water, soft drinks, juice and coffee are foodstuffs and follow the main rule: 15% on take-away, 25% when served. Cocktails, wine by the glass and draught beer served on the premises are 25%.

A pitfall: fixed-price menus that include wine, for example "three courses with wine pairing 895 kr". This is a single catering service at 25%, so it is simpler. But if you sell the same menu as a "take-away dinner for two incl. bottle of wine", you must split the food (15%) and the wine (25%) in the books. Set the bundle up as two product lines in the till from the start.

Another grey area is "dessert wine to go" or "our own homemade liqueur in a bottle". That is 25% regardless, and in addition requires a retail licence for alcohol beyond your serving licence. Check with your municipality.

Catering, delivery and business customers

Event catering is an area where the rules are logical but require you to think through the delivery. If you deliver food to the customer's premises without serving it, meaning you drop off boxes of food, it is a foodstuff sale at 15%. If you provide waiting staff, lay tables, keep the food warm and clear up afterwards, it is a catering service at 25%. The in-between cases, for example setting up a buffet but leaving before the meal, must be assessed case by case. Skatteetaten's practice has been that setting up a buffet with hot plates and platters is readily regarded as arranging for serving.

If you sell to business customers on invoice, the same rates apply. The customer can deduct input VAT on food for canteens and meetings only to a limited extent, but that is the customer's problem, not yours. Your job is to invoice at the correct rate with VAT specified per line.

Delivery via your own driver or a third party: the delivery fee follows the main supply. If you deliver food at 15%, the delivery fee is also 15%. If you use platforms such as Wolt or Foodora, you receive a settlement where the platform's commission is a service with 25% input VAT for you, while your sale to the end customer is 15% on food and 25% on any alcohol. Have a routine for booking platform settlements correctly, not just the net amount that lands in your account.

How to set up your till and POS correctly

Whichever certified cash register system you use, every product must have the correct VAT code, and the system must handle the fact that the same product can be sold at two rates. Most Norwegian POS solutions solve this in one of two ways: either a global choice per receipt ("eat here" / "take away") that overrides the rate on all foodstuff lines, or separate variants of each product (Cappuccino and Cappuccino take-away).

The recommendation from most accountants is the receipt-level choice. It is faster in operation and gives cleaner reports. But make sure alcohol and other 25% items are not affected by the choice. Test this explicitly before opening: enter a take-away receipt with pizza and beer, and check that the Z report shows 15% on the pizza and 25% on the beer.

If you use digital ordering via QR menu, for example Flowder, the order must carry information about whether it is a table order or a pickup. An order from a QR code on a table is by definition catering. An order from an online pickup page is take-away. Check that the integration with your till or accounting system sends the correct VAT code per line, and that any alcoholic drinks get 25% regardless of channel.

Also make sure the Z report from the till breaks down revenue per VAT rate. This is what your accountant uses to fill in the VAT return, and this is what Skatteetaten asks for during an audit. Systems that only give totals create double work and risk.

The VAT return: deadlines and what you actually report

With turnover above 50,000 kroner in a twelve-month period you are required to register in the VAT Register (Merverdiavgiftsregisteret), which is done via Altinn/Skatteetaten. Almost all food service businesses are far above this from the first month and should register at start-up, preferably before the first sale, so you can claim input VAT on start-up costs.

The standard reporting period is two months. That gives six VAT returns per year, due one month and ten days after the end of the period. The January–February period is due 10 April, March–April is due 10 June, and so on. Payment is due the same day. Filing is done digitally via your accounting system or skatteetaten.no.

If your annual turnover is below 1 million kroner, you can apply for annual reporting. For a restaurant that is rarely relevant, and it is not smart either: two-month periods give smoother cash flow management.

In the return you report output VAT broken down by rate (25%, 15%, 12%), input VAT you are claiming, and the difference to be paid or refunded. The first periods after start-up often show negative VAT, meaning you get money back because input VAT on investments exceeds output VAT on sales. That is normal, but it tends to trigger a query from Skatteetaten, so have your vouchers in order.

Late filing incurs a daily enforcement fine. Late payment incurs interest. Both are unnecessary costs, so set up automatic reminders or let your accountant handle the whole cycle.

Input VAT deductions: start-up, refurbishment and operations

Everything you buy for the taxable business gives a right to deduct input VAT, provided you have a valid invoice with VAT specified and the seller's organisation number followed by "MVA". This covers kitchen equipment, cash register system, furniture, ingredients, cleaning products, accounting services, marketing and rent if the landlord is voluntarily registered.

Start-up costs incurred before you are registered can be included in the first VAT return after registration, retroactively up to three years for goods you still have and use in the business. If you bought an oven and cold room in May and registered in August, you get the deduction. Keep every invoice from day one.

Refurbishing premises is a big topic. VAT on trades services and materials is deductible when the work is done for your taxable operation. But be aware of the adjustment rules: for building works with more than 100,000 kroner in VAT you must adjust the deduction over ten years if the use changes, for example if you sell the business or the premises are converted to non-taxable use. Talk to your accountant before signing a refurbishment contract so the documentation is correct from the start.

What does not give a deduction: entertainment (food and drink for customers and business contacts), staff welfare such as Christmas parties, passenger cars, and private purchases. Food eaten by staff during working hours is a common point of contention. Skatteetaten accepts deductions for ingredients that go into production, but staff meals as a benefit in kind should in principle be treated as a withdrawal. Most restaurants set a fixed, low amount per employee per shift and book it. Agree the practice with your accountant.

Rent: many landlords of commercial premises are voluntarily registered in the VAT Register and invoice rent with 25% VAT. Then you get a deduction. If the landlord is not registered, the rent is VAT-free and you get no deduction, but the gross figure is also lower. Check this in the lease.

The most common findings in tax audits

Hospitality is a priority audit sector for Skatteetaten, and audits often arrive unannounced as control visits where they count the till, check Z reports and look at staff lists. These are the recurring findings:

1. Too high a share of take-away. As mentioned, Skatteetaten compares registered take-away against actual conditions. If the share is unrealistic, the difference between 15% and 25% is reassessed for the whole period, with a penalty tax of 20% of the amount in ordinary cases and up to 60% for gross negligence.

2. Alcohol registered at 15%. Often a till configuration error where the "take-away" choice hits all lines. Easy for the auditor to spot by comparing alcohol purchases against sales per rate.

3. Failure to split bundles and set menus. Especially catering with drinks, and set menus sold for collection.

4. Deductions for private consumption and entertainment. Restaurant owners eating and drinking in their own restaurant without booking a withdrawal, or recording dinners with friends as "client meetings".

5. Cash sales outside the till. This is not primarily a VAT issue, but it triggers a discretionary assessment of the entire turnover, including VAT. Auditors use ingredient purchases, industry gross margins and staff rotas to estimate what they consider probable revenue.

6. Undocumented withdrawals and waste. Discarded food is fine, but it should appear in a waste log. Without a log, the auditor assumes the difference between purchases and sales is undeclared revenue.

The best defence is boring: correct till setup, daily Z report, waste log, vouchers for everything, and an accountant who knows the industry. That costs roughly 4,000–10,000 kroner a month for a simple food service business, and it is cheaper than a single audit that goes wrong.

Checklist before opening

Before you open the doors, go through this with your accountant:

VAT registration submitted via Altinn, preferably with advance registration if you have large investments before the first sale. All products in the till have the correct VAT code, and the take-away choice has been tested against both food and alcohol. The Z report breaks down revenue per rate. The "eat here or take away" routine is established with all staff. All start-up invoices are collected and have VAT specified. The lease has been checked for VAT treatment of rent. Any building works are documented for the adjustment rules. Reporting deadlines are in the calendar or delegated.

If you use digital ordering from a QR code or pickup page, check that the system distinguishes between table and pickup and passes on the correct rate. Get this right from day one and VAT is rarely something you need to think about again until the next audit, and by then everything is in order.

FAQ

Is coffee 15% or 25% VAT in Norway?

Both, depending on how it is sold. Coffee served to be drunk on the premises is a catering service at 25%. Coffee in a paper cup to take away is a foodstuff sale at 15%. The till must register the correct rate on every sale.

What VAT rate applies to alcohol on take-away?

Alcoholic beverages are always 25% VAT, both when served and on take-away. Alcohol is not considered a foodstuff for VAT purposes. If you sell food and alcohol together for collection, the food (15%) and the alcohol (25%) must be split on separate lines.

How often must a restaurant file a VAT return?

The standard is every two months, i.e. six periods per year. The deadline for filing and payment is one month and ten days after the end of the period, for example 10 April for January–February. Businesses with turnover below 1 million kroner can apply for annual reporting, but that is rarely practical for food service.

Can I deduct VAT on start-up costs before the restaurant opens?

Yes. Once registered in the VAT Register, you can claim input VAT on goods and services bought for the business before registration, up to three years back for goods you still use. Keep all invoices with VAT specified and the seller's organisation number.

What happens if Skatteetaten finds too much take-away in the accounts?

Skatteetaten can reassess the difference between 15% and 25% for the entire audit period and impose a penalty tax, normally 20% of the reassessed amount, higher for gross negligence. They assess the take-away share against the number of seats, layout of the premises and industry averages.

Is catering 15% or 25% VAT?

Pure delivery of food without serving is 15%. Catering where you serve, lay tables, keep food warm or provide staff is a catering service at 25%. Alcohol in catering is always 25%. Assess each delivery individually and specify the rates on the invoice.