Norway, the country where you can see everyone's tax returns

Would you be happy to have your tax return displayed for everyone to see? In Norway, no one can disguise their earnings, as every citizen’s is made available for everyone else in the country to inspect. Workers can see what their colleagues earn and neighbours can snoop on how much the people next door make - all legally and online.

On a date every year in October, just after midnight, Norwegian citizens’ annual tax returns are posted online - and the country’s Norwegian newspapers leap to produce top ten lists of the country’s highest earners, the incomes and taxes paid by the political and cultural elites, celebrities and sportspeople.

There is just one caveat, introduced in 2014. If you are wondering quite how your neighbour can afford that Porsche, and take a look online on Skatteetaten - Norway’s equivalent to HMRC - he will be sent an email telling you have been checking on him. Since the new rule came in, the number of requests has fallen considerably.

The Norwegian media, however, are exempt. They have access to look at tax returns without the party concerned being informed, and to search back through previous years as well.

There are a few limits on how the data is disclosed. Only total income and total tax paid is revealed. So, for example, if Boris Johnson’s tax return was disclosed, it would show his total earnings as London mayor, MP and Telegraph columnist combined.

There is nothing new about tax transparency in Norway. Citizens have been able to inspect paper tax returns at the authorities’ offices since the early 1800s. The digital age, however, has made searching returns far easier and more popular, which in part prompted the requirement to reveal who was checking whom out.

According to Mariken Holter, the communications director at Skatteetaten, few Norwegians have the same hangups as British people about having their incomes disclosed. “It has been in place a very long time and is generally accepted by the people of Norway,” she said.

“There was perhaps a feeling that kids in school could look up parents’ earnings and then bully someone, which is partly why we imposed a requirement to give the name of the person who is looking at the data.”

Norwegians in Britain say the rules mean there is more honesty about salaries back home than they see in the UK. Job adverts are much more likely to specify the salary on offer, rather than coyly using phrases such as “competitive salary package” that are common in Britain.

Marius Bakke at the Norwegian embassy in London, speaking in a personal capacity, said that tax transparency may also contribute to a flatter and more equal pay structure in the country.

“The salary structure in Norway is quite different to the UK. You will find that the difference between someone in a job like mine and what the prime minister is paid is much less than you see in the UK,” he said.

Do they make Norwegians less likely to engage in tax avoidance or outright evasion? The Panama Papers are making headlines in Oslo - the country has a close relationship with Iceland - but no major political figures have been swept into the controversy … yet.