The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has published a supervisory report on Axactor Norway AS following a combined debt collection and ICT inspection, concluding that the firm overcharged debtors by adding a 25 percent VAT-equivalent uplift to compensation for extrajudicial collection costs in cases handled for Axactor Capital AS. The authority said that uplift was not allowed because the collection firm and the creditor were part of the same VAT group registration, so there was no taxable supply and no VAT cost to compensate. It said the practice breached good debt collection practice. The report says the 25 percent addition can be used only when the creditor actually incurs VAT on the collection service and cannot deduct it. For settled cases, debtors should be repaid the overcharged amounts, while unsettled cases must be restarted with a new debt collection notice. Finanstilsynet expects Axactor Norway to correct cases where payment demands were sent in the past three years and to confirm changes to its collection routines. The inspection also covered client money reconciliation, risk management and ICT governance, including ICT risk reporting, crisis preparedness, business impact analysis and oversight of outsourced ICT services. On the ICT side, Finanstilsynet recorded the firm's explanations on most points and noted the board's plan to establish a formal business impact analysis.
Norwegian Finanstilsynet2026-05-26
Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway finds Axactor Norway overcharged debtors with a 25 percent VAT uplift on collection costs
The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway published a supervisory report on Axactor Norway AS, finding the firm breached good debt collection practice by adding a 25 percent VAT-equivalent uplift to extrajudicial collection costs in cases for Axactor Capital AS, despite both entities being in the same VAT group. The authority states the uplift is only permitted where the creditor incurs non-deductible VAT, and expects Axactor Norway to repay overcharged debtors, restart unsettled cases with new notices, correct cases from the past three years and confirm changes to its collection routines, while also noting issues with client money reconciliation, risk management and ICT governance.