The Bahamas personal tax guide: income, assets, NIB and property

What the absence of personal income tax does—and does not—mean

The Bahamas does not operate a general personal income tax on ordinary salaries or private investment income. There is consequently no ordinary progressive personal income-tax bracket table to apply to a wage, dividend or investment gain.

That is a description of Bahamian tax, not a release from tax elsewhere. Citizenship-based taxation, a former country’s continuing residence rules, source-country withholding and the taxation of a business managed abroad can remain relevant. A bank may also need tax-residence information even though The Bahamas does not issue a conventional personal income-tax assessment.

Four meanings of residence

Capital gains and the cost of assets brought with you

No general Bahamian personal capital-gains tax is identified for ordinary private assets. The arrival-cost comparison therefore classifies The Bahamas as “no general CGT”, rather than claiming either a market-value step-up or a purchase-cost rule for a tax that is not generally charged.

Preserve original acquisition records, corporate actions and valuations anyway. They may determine the departure tax in the old country, the tax on a later return, an asset’s source-country liability or the basis in a future destination. Foreign real estate and shares in property-rich entities are particularly poor candidates for assuming that a move erases the source country’s claim.

Asset cost basis on arrival

For ordinary private assets, no general Bahamian CGT calculation requires an arrival-date basis. This is not a market-value step-up claim. Preserve original costs for foreign taxation and future moves.

A share bought before moving does not receive a universal new tax cost merely because the holder obtains Bahamian residence.

Checked 14 October 2026; no claim of a newly enacted arrival-value reset.

• Limited to ordinary private assets; business activity and DMTT scope are separate.
• Foreign real estate and other source-country claims do not disappear on a move.

Salary contributions from July 2026

Ordinary National Insurance contributions are 4.65% for employees and 6.65% for employers. NIB’s dated July 2026 notice confirms these percentages continue. The revised earnings ceiling is BSD 3,597 monthly or BSD 830 weekly.

The monthly change takes effect in July 2026. For weekly payroll, the workweek beginning 29 June retains the BSD 810 ceiling; the BSD 830 ceiling first applies to the workweek beginning 6 July. Earlier 2026 periods use the earlier ceiling.

A monthly wage example that keeps employee and employer costs separate

For an ordinary covered employee paid BSD 10,000 for a month after the July 2026 change, the monthly capped base is BSD 3,597. The employee contribution is BSD 167.26, leaving BSD 9,832.74 after NIB. The employer contribution is BSD 239.20, producing a salary-plus-NIB cost of BSD 10,239.20.

This illustration excludes private health cover, pension arrangements, contractual benefits, overtime and leave or termination costs. It is not an all-in employment quote. NIB remittances are generally due by the fifteenth of the following month.

VAT and household expenditure

The standard VAT rate is 10%. A zero personal income-tax deduction does not mean goods, services and imported purchases are untaxed. The April 2026 food amendment exempts defined unprepared food supplied through qualifying food stores and the covered imports; it is not an across-the-board exemption for restaurant meals.

Exempt supplies and zero-rated supplies have different consequences for businesses recovering input VAT. A household simply comparing grocery receipts should not transfer that result to a restaurant, a service company or a property-rental business.

Home ownership changed tax categories in July 2026

The ordinary owner-occupied category is now confined to a Bahamian or a permanent resident with a right to gainful employment. The separate foreign owner-occupied category can apply to a non-Bahamian using the dwelling permanently or seasonally under residence, annual work or homeowner permission. The amended definition removes the former ninety-day condition from the ordinary category.

For illustration, an assessed BSD 600,000 property solely owned by one qualifying ordinary owner produces BSD 2,250 under the ordinary bands. The same assessed value in the foreign owner-occupied category produces BSD 3,750. The classification, not simply the nationality label on a sales brochure, determines which calculation applies.

Foreign companies, reporting and departure

No general personal CFC attribution or general personal deemed-disposal exit tax has been identified within the ordinary Bahamian personal tax system. These negative findings have a defined scope: they do not negate another country’s CFC rules, source taxes or a company’s own compliance.

Before leaving, distinguish a currency-control change of residence from the income-tax arrival rules of the next destination. The Central Bank has an intending-emigrant process. A new country may begin taxing gains from original purchase cost even where The Bahamas charged nothing during the intervening years.