The Bank of Greenland has for for the second year in a row made a serious blunder, which could end up with a tax slap for a group of the bank’s customers.
The Bank of Greenland has reported the customers’ share dividends in 2025 twice to the Tax Agency. The error occurs again on the pre-printed tax return, which the Tax Agency then sent to citizens at the end of March.
With a stock dividend listed twice, the preprinted income is higher than the real income and clients risk having to pay tax twice on the same stock dividend.
Neither the Bank of Greenland nor the Tax Agency can change the incorrect information on share dividends in the pre-printed tax returns, but instead encourages taxpayers to correct the figure for their share dividends in the 2025 tax return themselves.
This can be done using the Tax Agency’s key-in solution at www. aka.gl or www. sullissivik.gl.
Customers must pay attention to field 33 of the tax return (dividends from foreign securities), where they must compare the Tax Agency’s pre-printed amount with the statements for share dividends that the Bank of Greenland has sent to customers during 2025.
Some customers do not save mail from the bank and the authorities. Others rely on the Tax Agency’s pre-printed tax return.
– If you agree with the content of the pre-printed tax return, you do not need to take any further steps, writes the Danish Tax Agency in its guidance for the tax return.
The Bank of Greenland’s customers who do not respond to the incorrect information about their share dividends therefore risk a residual tax when the Tax Agency issues the final statement for 2025 in August.
Share dividends are taxed as B income at 42 percent in Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq, Qeqqata Kommunia and Kommune Qeqertalik and 44 percent in Kommune Kujalleq and Avannaata Kommunia.
Same error for two years
The Bank of Greenland states that it is the bank’s custodian, BEC Financial Technologies, which has reported the double dividend to the Tax Agency.
– The Bank of Greenland has reported the correct data, but a technical error has occurred with one of our partners, so that the share dividend has been registered twice, says business development director Ellen Lerch Høj to Sermitsiaq.
The Bank of Greenland does not yet know the reason for the technical error behind the double reporting of share dividends, but it is exactly the same error that occurred a year ago in connection with the pre-printed tax return for 2024. Already at the end of April 2025, the bank made its customers aware of the error for the first time.
How can it occur again this year when the bank was aware of the error last year?
– Good question, but we are working to find the error. There are several actors involved, and we will work together to find the cause.
How has the bank made its customers aware of the error?
– The affected customers have already been notified in online banking or e-box, and a small number of customers who do not have online banking or e-box will receive a physical letter.
How many customers are involved?
– It is a limited range of customers affected, and it only concerns customers who have received dividends from securities. These customers have been advised to check their tax returns.
Can the Bank of Greenland help with the corrections for customers where the bank has sent incorrect information to the Tax Agency?
– The short answer is no. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by some customers, but the Bank of Greenland cannot correct citizens’ personal tax information on the tax return.
Does the bank know of customers who paid tax twice on the same dividend in 2025 because they did not correct the error themselves?
– As in other cases where too much tax has been paid, there is a process to be able to have your tax case reopened at the Tax Agency. We believe there was a single customer last year who needed to take advantage of this option.
Can the bank guarantee that the error will not happen in 2027 for the third year in a row?
– We expect that it will not repeat itself, says Ellen Lerch Høj.
Bankivik has his figures in order
Bankivik is the second of the two financial institutions in Greenland. Bankivik has a securities depository via Euronext Securities Copenhagen (VP) with system support from Netcompany Banking Services (NBS).
Has Bankivik made the same mistake as the Greenland Bank by reporting the dividend in 2025 twice to the Tax Agency?
– No, Bankivik has reported share dividends for 2025 in accordance with the regulations. This means that the customers’ share dividends are reported correctly, and customers in Bankivik can therefore feel secure that the authorities have received correct and accurate information, says marketing manager Rúna Niclasardóttir Rasmussen to Sermitsiaq.
The cause remains unknown
The Tax Agency has passed on the incorrect information from the Bank of Greenland to the pre-printed tax return.
Does the Tax Agency have the opportunity to correct the Bank of Greenland’s mistakes?
– At present, neither the Bank of Greenland nor the Tax Agency know the technical explanation for the fact that some customers have had their dividend reported twice to the Tax Agency, but we are working together to find an explanation and get the error corrected. We therefore do not know whether it is the Bank of Greenland, the Tax Agency or one of our IT suppliers who must make some changes to their reports, says the Tax Agency’s Morten W. Selvejer to Sermitsiaq.
In the meantime, the Tax Agency encourages the affected customers to correct the error on their tax returns themselves. They can do this, among other things, by going to www.aka.gl or www.sullissivik.gl/minskat.
– If we do not manage to correct the numbers, we will try to take the error into account in connection with the equation. However, we cannot promise that we will get everything before the final statement is sent out at the end of August. We therefore encourage the affected customers to pay extra attention to their final statement, and if they find an error, they should contact the Tax Agency as soon as possible to have the statement corrected, says Morten W. Selvejer.
And remember: The tax return with the correct dividend must be submitted to the Swedish Tax Agency no later than 1 May.
