2026-10-04Finding
El Salvador taxes territorially, and the law still prints the opposite heading
The income tax law has an article titled Worldwide income. Underneath it, the article has been repealed, and the heading stayed.
Every other country in this reference that taxes its residents on worldwide income says so in a sentence you can quote. El Salvador's income tax law has the heading - Renta mundial - and under it three words: Art. 15.- DEROGADO.
What governs instead is the next article, which defines income obtained in El Salvador by source: property situated in the country, activities carried out there, capital invested there. That is a territorial system, and it is reached by deletion rather than by statement.
This is exactly the shape a reader skimming a table of contents will misread, and the shape a consolidated text hides best. The heading survives above an emptied article because consolidation preserves structure, and nothing in the document shouts that the thing under the heading is gone.
The residence test is separate and also unusual: two hundred consecutive days, not the hundred and eighty-three that every other country in the set uses. Once someone is domiciled for more than a calendar year, the law allows a hundred and sixty-five days of absence before that changes.
What the instruments say
«Renta mundial.
Art. 15.- DEROGADO. (2) (14)»Our translation - not official
Worldwide income. Article 15. REPEALED.
The heading survives in the consolidated text with the article emptied under it, which is the clearest possible record of the choice: El Salvador legislated for worldwide income and then took it out. The markers point to Decreto Legislativo 250 of 21 May 1992, Diario Oficial 101, Tomo 315, and Decreto Legislativo 496 of 28 October 2004, Diario Oficial 231, Tomo 365.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Se reputan rentas obtenidas en El Salvador, las que provengan de bienes situados en el país, así como de actividades efectuadas o de capitales invertidos en el mismo, y de servicios prestados o utilizados en el territorio nacional, aunque se reciban o paguen fuera de la República.»Our translation - not official
Income obtained in El Salvador is deemed to be income from property situated in the country, from activities carried out or capital invested in it, and from services rendered or used in the national territory, even if received or paid outside the Republic.
The source rules are wider than they first look. The next paragraph treats income from a service used in the country as Salvadoran-source for the provider even where the work was done abroad, which reaches a foreign consultant billing a Salvadoran client.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Las personas naturales que residan de manera temporal o definitiva en el país por más de doscientos días consecutivos durante un año calendario. Las personas que hayan sido consideradas como domiciliadas durante más de un año calendario, podrán ausentarse del país hasta por ciento sesenta y cinco días sin perder su calidad de domiciliadas;»Our translation - not official
Natural persons who reside temporarily or permanently in the country for more than two hundred consecutive days during a calendar year. Persons who have been considered domiciled for more than one calendar year may be absent from the country for up to one hundred and sixty-five days without losing their status as domiciled;
Two numbers, and both differ from the regional norm. The two hundred days are consecutive, not cumulative, which is a further difference from the 183-days-in-any-12-months tests used elsewhere.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesCódigo Tributario, consolidated text with reform legend
Centro de Documentacion Judicial, Corte Suprema de Justicia (El Salvador)
About this source
The judiciary's legislative repository, and the only place that publishes Salvadoran statutes as consolidated texts with a numbered reform legend naming every amending decree by number, date, Diario Oficial issue and volume. Article-level markers tie each amended paragraph to the decree that changed it, which is what makes an amended article citable here at all.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Its /R/ branch holds **amending acts, not amended laws**, and they read convincingly like the law they reform - a search for the financial inclusion law returns a decree that merely reforms it. Check the opening for Refórmase before quoting anything from that branch. File paths are opaque content hashes with no title and are filed under the decade and month of the **original** act, so a 2026 reform lives under a 2019 path and a document has to be identified from its own text. It also carries no statement of currency: the reform legend is the only evidence of how recently a text was rebuilt.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source