That would be my one major drawback against starting up here in Norway. I've seen calculations of how companies like Facebook would fare if they started up in Norway, and it wasn't pretty. You pay tax on the value of your shares, even if the company isn't making money...

However, for start-ups that aren't looking to have hundreds of millions of users/customers before breaking even, it is still worth a shot!

I'm from Norway and working for a startup. You do not have to pay tax for the value of your shares, but for the assets that the company own. For a tech startup that means laptops and workstations.