OSLO DISTRICT COURT (Nettavisen): Petter Stordalen’s glittering, stone-encrusted bracelet jingles during his speech in Oslo District Court on Tuesday afternoon.
– I like dealers, said Stordalen at the beginning of the broad Porsgrunns goal. – I like turnover figures and I read them. every morning I remember them, the numbers from the spa department at the hotel at Sommerro. I have brought all this with me from the shop to my father.
Stordalen is in court all this week. This is because the Tax Agency would like to have NOK 200 million from Stordalen. But Stordalen does not agree with that demand. Stordalen has taken the tax decision to court and on Monday this week started processing the case. A week has been set aside for the tax dispute in the Oslo District Court.
The background to the dispute started in 2013 when the hotel king bought the holding company Oslo Properties AS, later renamed Strawberry Fields. Since then and until 2021, the Norwegian Tax Agency believes that Stordalen has withdrawn over NOK 800 million in tax-free dividends from the company.
In 2022, the Tax Appeal Board came up with a decision which said that these payments should not be tax-free at all. The tax authorities have therefore demanded that Stordalen repay over NOK 200 million.
– Lies like a pike
Stordalen’s account of its activities is vivid and colourful. He has bought companies with losses a number of times.
– I follow along like a pike in a reed, he says of his “dealers”.
In court, he tells about transactions, losses and gains.
– I have lost a lot of money on transactions that I thought would be good. That’s the brutal side of it. It’s easy to get greedy and “cocky” and do things you shouldn’t. I don’t think I’m taking a lot of risk myself. I got through the pandemic because I had a lot of assets. But it cost a lot of blood.
He says that his CFO Mads Koch is responsible for the finances.
– Mads asks me: “How much dividend do you need to run AS Petter?”. However, I do not accept any sloppiness. Everything else must always be in order.
Lawyer: – The state has changed the rule
– The tax authority has tried to change a rule that has been fixed for nearly 70 years, and we believe there is no basis for that. Petter Stordalen believes this is wrong, he has complied with the rules that apply, Stordalen’s lawyer Kaare Andreas Shetelig told Børsen on the first day of the case.
Shetelig believes that the Tax Agency is trying to change the law by collecting the money, according to E24. It is up to the Storting to do so, he argued.
Goes to roads, pensions and welfare
Stordalen has stated that he is proud to pay tax and has also spoken about this tax matter to E24.
– You have to remember one thing: The tax we pay goes to roads, pensions, police and healthcare – in short, it finances the welfare state. So you have to turn it around. I don’t think we’ll lose, but if we do, fine. That money will not be lost, it will go to finance a sea of measures that are good, Stordalen told E24 in autumn 2023.