Norway’s tax authority Skatteetaten has confirmed that SAF-T Financial version 1.40 will become the only accepted format from 1 January 2027 (official Skatteetaten documentation). Versions 1.20 and 1.30 remain valid until 31 December 2026. Version 1.40 is already available for early adoption (VATupdate, 30 September 2026).
Background: what is Norway’s SAF-T Financial?
SAF-T (Standard Audit File for Tax) Financial is a standardised XML format used for exporting and exchanging accounting data for tax audit purposes. In Norway, this format has been mandatory since 1 January 2020 for all businesses with accounting obligations, including subsidiaries and branches of foreign companies operating in Norway (exemption: annual turnover below NOK 5 million, approximately EUR 430,000 — a deliberately low threshold).
Norway has followed a phased update cycle: version 1.20 was valid until 31 December 2024, version 1.30 remains valid until 31 December 2026. Version 1.40, available since summer 2026, completes this cycle with full backward compatibility (Fiscal Requirements, 17 July 2026).
It is important not to confuse SAF-T Financial with Peppol/EHF e-invoicing, which is a separate B2B obligation also taking effect on 1 January 2027 in Norway. Both requirements are cumulative for in-scope businesses.
Impact for businesses
For any CIO or CFO managing a Norwegian entity, three practical questions arise immediately.
Is your ERP already certified for v1.40? ERP vendors actively serving the Norwegian market — including Visma ERP, Monitor G5, SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Oracle NetSuite — generate SAF-T files through their tax reporting modules. The backward compatibility of v1.40 eases the transition: the underlying structure remains consistent with v1.30. However, each vendor must formally validate their certification against the new version. The question to ask your integrator or vendor support team today: “When will the SAF-T v1.40 update be available in our version?”
What is your realistic timeline? The window between today (September 2026) and the deadline (1 January 2027) is three months. For a reporting module update, the turnaround is typically short — a patch or minor version upgrade. But if your ERP is running an older or unsupported release, the SAF-T update may require a broader upgrade. Identify your installed ERP version and review your vendor’s SAF-T compatibility matrix.
Who validates the file? Skatteetaten provides an official validator to test SAF-T file compliance before submission. Once your ERP update is available, run a test export against a closed financial period before using it in production.
What to watch for
The coming weeks will see ERP vendors serving Norway publish their v1.40 update announcements. Monitor your solution’s release notes and request written confirmation of SAF-T v1.40 compliance from your integrator before the end of October 2026 — that leaves two months to test and address any export issues.
The complete v1.40 technical documentation (XSD schemas, XML examples, release notes) is available on Skatteetaten’s official GitHub repository. The Skatteetaten documentation page also lists updated reference guides as of 31 August 2026.
One note for the longer term: Skatteetaten is already working on SAF-T Financial version 2.0 (visible in the GitHub repository), though no mandatory implementation date has been announced.
To place this obligation in the broader context of digital compliance requirements accumulating for companies with Nordic subsidiaries, read our guide on mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Norway from 2027 and our overview of Nordic and Dutch ERP vendors.
