But if you and a pal own a small business, maybe you employ fifteen electricians and business is slow for a few years, slow enough that you make no profit but not so slow that you have to fire anyone, then the assessed value of the company with fifteen employees doesn't shrink much. Which makes sense: it still has fifteen employees so it's future/long term value hasn't really changed.
The tax on companies in Norway is entirely reasonable and works largely as I see when I google those terms. Some people complain about the taxation level, as you would expect. Some people always complain.
Perhaps I'd better describe the wealth tax and what some people see as a big deal.
Suppose you own half of a company as above. The company pays normal taxes on its income minus expenses etc. You, as owner, pay tax on your salary and dividend. But in addition, the company's historical earnings are used to compute the value of the company. NB: The historical earnings, not this year's. These earnings are multiplied by a P/E ratio to assess a value of the company, the company's assets play a role too but often minor. You own half, so about 0.5% of the company's assessed value is added to your personal tax for this year. In the end, even if the company does poorly enough that you and the other the owners choose to pay yourselves neither salary nor dividends, you can have a substantial personal tax bill.
Now, paying taxes when you do well is not regarded as a big deal in Norway. You pay a lot and get a lot for your money. But paying the wealth tax at times when you worry whether your business will survive at all makes people angry, and IMO that's a problem. Taxes should be seen as just.
The question is, is it more or less just than allowing for abuse of all kinds of loopholes to avoid paying taxes altogether. Hiding everything in "unrealized" and other kinds of hitherto untaxable stuff. Even if they would have no problem actually paying it. Taxes will never be fully just.
But if you and a pal own a small business, maybe you employ fifteen electricians and business is slow for a few years, slow enough that you make no profit but not so slow that you have to fire anyone, then the assessed value of the company with fifteen employees doesn't shrink much. Which makes sense: it still has fifteen employees so it's future/long term value hasn't really changed.