"It’s unlikely the Norwegian tax authorities are aware of these assets."
I personally like when a smear article shoots itself in the foot in the second sentence be declaring that its being entirely speculative.
I actually love this article, because it goes to such a length to find something illegal where there is nothing.
First of all, the company mentioned in the Article: "Dynamic Solution AS" does exist, altho in the Norwegian index registry there are 2 companies with the same name, which looks to be a mistake but nonetheless. i found the company that belongs to Solbakken.
The company in question has declared a very sizeable taxable income and revenue generated. That financial information is publicly available to anyone who wants to view it. AS stands for (Aksje Selskap - or Stock Company. Ie it's shares are tradeable on the open market if he company so wishes). The entity is regulated by the Norwegian tax authorities, but it's (unless outright fraudulent) completely separated from its owners in terms of legal and financial responsibility. The coimpany is its own entity.
Now with regards to the rest of the conspiracy theory in the article. Ole's "failure to declare his entire net worth as taxable income". There are a few tax rules regarding when you have to declare your assets in Norway. Firstly, what qualifies as taxable assets is subject to when it was aquired. For example OGS is not required to declare income on financial assets invested into a company. His finances are tied up in the company, but its the company that's on the line to declare its finances within its area of operation.
Managing your networth is something that everyone with money does. Nearly every single living person with a fortune of any size, plays the game of "How do i keep most of it". I have an investment company that I own 100%. I'm not rich, but I also own a company that does well and this allows me the comfort of being able to invest now and then. No one actively seeks out every chance to give away as much of their hard earned income as they can. What you do is you invest those money into available investments and use the magic of accounting to bring your net worth down to somewhere near 0. A fortune is idle money. All it does is sit still and collect poor interest in the bank. Sure you want some cash on hand, but not too much of it.
So in short, this article is accusing OGS of not letting his money live in the bank under his own person so he can tax most of it.
I should mention that nothing of this is "fishy" or even borderline illegal. It's simply called investment.
The Norwegian state have bilateral tax agreements with most states, they can be found here.
https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/...eavtaler-mellom-norge-og-andre-stat/id417330/ - To avoid dobule taxation, you have something called tax-deregulations of things like income and property tax paid abroad that you can declare as "admissable" on your norwegian tax return.
I just finished reading this whole thing but Ill just avoid tearing my hair out and reply to this final bit:
"
“Not declaring all your assets can result in substantial penalty taxes. Tax evasion can result in fines or prison up to six years,” Jebsen writes in an email.
Solskjær’s tax returns for the period 2011 to 2018 show wealth between 17 and 30 million kroners – between 1,7 and 3 million pounds."
So there is a lot of things that needs to be pointed out here, but Ill just note down the basics of how you can be "in good financial standing", and still report a lower than you thought income or wealth.
The value of your assets is estimated at 30% of its actual worth by the Norwegian tax administration.
Investments in tradeable companies are heavily devalued on the tax filings by the tax administration, vs real value. This means that the investment is generally a lot more valuable than the tax authorities declare on paper.
Debt is nulled out vs fortune. For example if you have £1m in loans it cancels out your £1m cash reserve and gives you a net worth and annual income of £0 assuming you did not for example take out dividends or work that year.
Everyone, unless you are not right in the head, finance your purchases or investments with bank loans. You do not use your own dough to buy anything if you can avoid it. Use the bank. Hell, we have an example of this very thing with the owners of this football club, on a much larger scale. The principle is the same.
OGS's real wealth is at least 70% greater than what is stated on the financial documents, and that is the Norwegian Tax administrations own assesments. That means that OGS has declared property and assets valued at nearly £10m in actual market value at a wealth of 30m NOK. That's hardly hiding your money away declarations.
I wish I had more time, or will to get a bit more detailed into this because I just love how dishonest and reaching this entire piece is. Oh, OGS has ownership interests in 1 company in Norway, Grip Management AS that deals in property rental and aquisition. Last year they had a income of 4.4m and a taxable income of 500k~ NOK.
https://www.proff.no/regnskap/grip-management-as/sandnes/eiendomshandel-og-utleie/IGAKLCM10MV/
Edit: It would have been sweet to see the documents they base their story on that they say are in their possession. Magically revealing them doesn't seem to be of concern to the author.
