The Finance Minister promotes Norwegian resource rent taxation in Financial Times
News story | Date: 16/01/2025 | Ministry of Finance
In the article «Tax lessons for governments from Henry George» in Financial Times, Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum discusses how Henry George's ideas on taxation of land and resources may be relevant for the global tax debate.
Henry George believed that economic progress leads to extraordinary profits for some due to their privileged access to land or other common resources, and that this should benefit the entire society.
In Norway, the principle that extraordinary profit from natural resources should benefit the entire nation has been part of the policy since the beginning of the 20th century. This has been applied to hydroelectric power production and later to oil production in the North Sea. Recently, the government has introduced a resource rent tax on aquaculture and onshore wind power.
The Finance Minister argues that international tax cooperation is the key to ensuring that extraordinary profits from large multinational companies benefit the states.
Norway has been invited as a guest country to the G20 in Brazil in 2024 and has once again been invited as a guest country in 2025 by this year's host nation, South Africa. International tax cooperation was an important topic last year, and a fundamental part of the Finance Minister's participation. The topic continues to be important in this year's participation.
The article in Financial Times is based on a lecture the Finance Minister was invited to give at the Henry George Chair in Economics at St. Johns University, in New York in October last year.