The Bank of Greenland makes a serious blunder for the second year in a row

For the second year in a row, the Bank of Greenland has made a serious blunder that could result in a tax hit for a group of the bank's customers.

The Bank of Greenland has reported its customers' share dividends in 2025 twice to the Danish Tax Agency. The error is repeated on the pre-printed tax return, which the Danish Tax Agency then sent to citizens at the end of March.

With a share dividend listed twice, the pre-printed income is higher than the real income, and customers risk having to pay tax twice on the same share dividend.

Neither the Bank of Greenland nor the Danish Tax Agency can change the incorrect information about 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 on the Danish Tax Agency's self-entering solution at www. aka.gl or www. sullissivik.gl.

Customers should pay attention to field 33 of the tax return (dividends of foreign securities), where they must compare the Danish Tax Agency's pre-printed amounts with the statements of share dividends that the Bank of Greenland has sent to the customers during 2025.

Some customers do not save mail from the bank and the authorities. Others trust the Danish 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 action, writes the Tax Agency in its guide to the tax return.

The Bank of Greenland's customers who do not respond to the incorrect information about their share dividend will therefore risk a back tax when the Tax Agency issues the final statement for 2025 in August.

Share dividend is taxed as B-income at 42 percent in the Municipality of Sermersooq, Qeqqata Municipality and Municipality of Qeqertalik and 44 percent in the Municipality of Kujalleq and Avannaata Municipality.

Same mistake for two years

The Bank of Greenland states that it is the bank's custodian, BEC Financial Technologies, that has reported the double share dividend to the Tax Agency.

– The Bank of Greenland has reported the correct data, but a technical error has occurred at one of our partners, so that share dividends have 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. The bank first made its customers aware of the error at the end of April 2025.

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 did the bank make its customers aware of the error?

– The affected customers have already been notified via online banking or e-boks, and a small number of customers who do not have online banking or e-boks will receive a physical letter.

How many customers are affected? 

– There are a limited number of affected customers, and this only concerns customers who have received dividends from securities. These customers have been reminded 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 Danish Tax Agency?

– The short answer is no. We regret the inconvenience that some customers are experiencing, but the Bank of Greenland cannot correct citizens' personal tax information on their tax returns.

Is the Bank aware 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 there may be an overpayment of tax, there is a process to reopen your tax case with the Danish Tax Agency. We believe that there was a single customer last year who needed to use this option.

Can the bank guarantee that the error will not occur in 2027 for the third year in a row?

– We expect that it will not happen again, says Ellen Lerch Høj. Bankivik has its numbers in order. Bankivik is the second of the two banks 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 Bank of Greenland by reporting the dividend in 2025 twice to the Danish Tax Agency?

– No, Bankivik has reported share dividends for 2025 in accordance with the regulations. This means that the customers' share dividends have been reported correctly, and customers in Bankivik can therefore feel safe that the authorities have received correct and accurate information, says Marketing Manager Rúna Niclasardóttir Rasmussen to Sermitsiaq.

Reason still unknown

The Tax Agency has passed on the incorrect information from the Bank of Greenland to the pre-printed tax return.

Is it possible for the Tax Agency to correct the Bank of Greenland's error?

– At this time, neither the Bank of Greenland nor the Tax Agency know the technical explanation for why some customers have had their dividends reported to the Tax Agency twice, but we are working together to find an explanation and to correct the error. We therefore do not know whether it is the Bank of Greenland, the Danish Tax Agency or one of our IT suppliers that will make some changes to their reports, says the Danish Tax Agency's Morten W. Selvejer to Sermitsiaq. In the meantime, the Danish Tax Agency encourages affected customers to correct the error on their tax return themselves. They can do this, among other things, by visiting www.aka.gl or www.sullissivik.gl/minskat.

– If we do not have time to correct the figures, we will try to take the error into account in the calculation. However, we cannot promise that we will include 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 Danish Tax Agency as soon as possible to have the statement corrected, says Morten W. Selvejer.

And remember: The tax return with the correct share dividend must be submitted to the Danish Tax Agency no later than 1 May.