Research

About the Research Group

The state is primarily financed through taxes and duties, which constitute a significant cost for both businesses and individuals. There is a continuous need for legal research in the field of tax law to clarify current regulations and make them more predictable and easier to navigate for taxpayers, authorities, and the courts. This research also contributes to the development of legal frameworks, particularly in response to the challenges posed by globalization and digitalization. The overarching goal is to build a research environment in tax law that is independent of special interests and capable of advancing the discipline and its understanding to a principled level.

Our Researchers and Their Projects

Elin Sarai

Elin Sarai conducts research on various topics within tax law. She is currently working on a project focused on one of the core concepts in Norwegian tax law—the requirement of an expense being “incurred” as a condition for tax deductibility. Her PhD dissertation was titled “Employer’s National Insurance Contributions and Cross-border Employment”, and she has also published academic articles on the full-cost principle and joint settlement procedures. Elin is responsible for two law courses at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), teaches international tax law in the Master in Accounting and Auditing program (MRR), and supervises master’s theses. She also served as a member of the government-appointed tax committee that produced NOU 2022:20 A Comprehensive Tax System.

Guri Lindblad
Guri Lindblad is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, primarily conducting research in the field of value-added tax (VAT) law.

In her doctoral dissertation, Lindblad examined the VAT treatment of bundled supplies, highlighting key systemic and harmonization challenges within VAT law. Her current research focuses on issues related to cross-border transactions and the scope of VAT obligations from an international perspective, as well as more fundamental questions such as the concept of “economic activity” in tax law.

In addition to her VAT-related research, she has a particular interest in legal pedagogy. She investigates the development of student-active teaching and assessment methods in legal education, aiming to enhance learning outcomes and students’ understanding of legal subjects. She also publishes articles in this field.

Lindblad is affiliated with the research groups for Tax Law and Legal Pedagogy at the University of Bergen.

Henrik Skar

Henrik Skar is the head of the Tax and Duties Law Research Group. His research focuses on fundamental legal concepts in Norwegian tax law and principles of legal interpretation. He has published extensively on topics such as the general anti-avoidance rule—also the subject of his doctoral thesis—various nexus requirements in Norwegian tax law, ownership definitions, and other foundational elements of the tax system. He also contributes to broader theoretical debates on legal methodology and has published in company law. Henrik is responsible for teaching tax law at the faculty, leads several tax law research projects, and supervises multiple PhD candidates.

Jacob Norvik Jervell

Jacob Norvik Jervell is a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen and a member of the Tax Law Research Group. His dissertation examines the concept of "realization" under Section 9-2 of the Norwegian Tax Act. The project aims to analyze the content and boundaries of the realization concept under current law and assess the pros and cons of the current realization-based taxation of capital gains and deductions for capital losses. His doctorate is part of the research project “Core Concepts in Tax Law in a New Era.”

Jacob’s research focuses on the taxation of capital gains and deductions for capital losses, as well as foundational questions of legal methodology in tax law—including the interaction between tax and private law, the relationship between interpreting general tax rules and the anti-avoidance provision in Section 13-2, and the role of the principle of legality in interpreting symmetric rules on tax liability and deduction rights.

He has taught or currently teaches courses such as Introduction to Legal Methodology (JUS100), Tort Law (JUS213), Property and Intellectual Property Law (JUS214), and Tax Law (JUS2399), and supervises master's theses in tax and duty law (JUS399).

Peter Koerver Schmidt

Peter Koerver Schmidt’s research area is tax law, with a particular focus on international taxation. In this field, Peter has published extensively, including scholarly articles in leading international journals and anthologies, as well as books. His recent research has mainly concentrated on four specific but closely interrelated areas in international tax law, all of which are high on the political agenda and offer significant potential for academic impact:

• Combating aggressive tax planning and avoidance,

• EU tax law,

• The increasing digitalization of the economy and business models,

• Tax fairness and taxation as a legal instrument to reduce inequality.

Tormod Torvanger

Associate Professor Tormod Torvanger is responsible for the tax and corporate law courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), where he also undertakes other responsibilities in legal education. He lectures, supervises master's theses, and serves as an examiner in tax law at the University of Bergen’s Faculty of Law.

His PhD thesis, Access to the Norwegian Tonnage Tax System (Gyldendal 2020), analyzes the Norwegian shipping tax regime in an international context. The dissertation discusses which types of vessels and operations may qualify under the Norwegian system and compares its vessel-related qualification criteria to those of the Dutch, British, and Danish regimes. Building on this research, Torvanger has authored commentaries and articles on the Norwegian shipping tax regime and is considered a specialist in this area and its state aid implications within the EU/EEA framework.

Torvanger is currently working on a monograph about the tax act’s nexus requirement, specifically analyzing the connection needed between an expense and taxable income for it to be deductible. The working title of the project is “For the Purpose of Earning Income.”

He also serves on the Appeals Board for Petroleum Tax, is vice chair of the Price Council for Aquaculture, and practices as a tax attorney.