Grenada: personal tax guide

What the tax system covers

The published consolidated Income Tax Act section 8 taxes residents and nonresidents on Grenada-source assessable income. Its source-deeming rules remain important: working in Grenada or carrying on a business there cannot be converted into foreign-source income merely by invoicing abroad.

When you become tax resident

The published Act defines personal residence through physical presence for at least 183 days, or ordinary residence with permanent-home connections and temporary absence. Apply the current legislation to the travel record and home facts; citizenship alone is not the test.

Rates and the tax base

10% and 28% above the exempt band. The peer review reports an annual XCD36,000 exemption, 10% from XCD36,000 to XCD60,000 and 28% above XCD60,000. Confirm subsequent amendments and the income category before calculation.

Asset cost basis on arrival

The arrival cost-basis treatment for this country has not yet been established in this comparison. Do not assume either an arrival-value reset or retention of original cost.

• The treatment needs to be checked separately for ordinary shares, funds, property, business interests and assets acquired by gift or inheritance.

Local tax obligations remain separate from nationality

Grenada’s Inland Revenue guidance identifies income from business, employment, rentals, royalties, interest and other categories. It describes a personal employment threshold of EC$36,000 annually, or EC$3,000 monthly, and separately administers corporate income tax. The threshold is not a CBI contribution and is not an exemption for an entire company.

For a person intending to work from Grenada, classify the activity and determine the applicable local income and reporting obligations. The authority’s G-TAX guidance identifies withholding on certain payments by residents to nonresidents at 15%; exemptions, treaties and the payment’s legal character still require review.

Employment benefits and shareholder advances

IRD's income-tax guidance includes wages, director fees, allowances and benefits in the employment-income analysis. It also flags loans or advances from controlled companies to shareholders. Moving money as a loan rather than salary is therefore not enough to decide its personal tax treatment. Keep employment contracts, benefit records and shareholder loan movements separate from ordinary business expenses.

A useful income register before moving

Build the review around actual receipts: employment, director fees, consulting, business distributions, rent, interest and investment disposals. For each, record who earns it, where the work or asset is located, when it arises and which entity pays. This is particularly important where the person owns both a local operating company and an overseas holding company.

For an illustrative remote consultant, an overseas customer does not answer where the work is performed. For a passive investor, an overseas security is a different starting point from a business actively managed from Grenada. These are different fact patterns to analyse under the source rules, rather than a shared promise of tax exemption.

What still needs confirmation before a large asset sale

The open question is the treatment of a genuine private capital disposal under current law, not whether an active trading business is tax-free. The IRD expressly includes gains or profits from a trade, business or profession in personal income. A portfolio or crypto operation with a business character therefore needs analysis independently of any claim about private capital gains.

The Parliament-hosted Act is useful for identifying the income categories and deduction framework, but its amendment list ends in 2010. The current IRD FAQ does not establish an explicit blanket private-capital exemption. Before a disposal, obtain the operative rule and later amendments, classify the activity and asset, and separately check property-transfer charges and tax imposed by the asset’s source country. The comparison remains unverified rather than displaying an unsupported zero.

Foreign companies and income attribution

A current legislative CFC review is not complete; citizenship-programme marketing is not sufficient evidence of the tax regime.

Departure, migration and continuing obligations

No comprehensive current departure-tax review is asserted in this draft.