Country-wide policy
The Housing and Social Development Levy
Saint Kitts and Nevis stopped charging individuals income tax on 1 May 1980 and has taxed wages ever since under a different statute. The Housing and Social Development Levy is imposed on the wages of every person employed in the Federation, at nothing up to the first band, then three and a half, ten and twelve per cent, with the employer paying a flat three per cent of all wages on top. It is deducted at source by the employer and paid monthly to the Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and the Social Security Board collects it on his behalf. Nothing in it turns on nationality or residence: it follows employment.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- Nothing for the employee to do: the employer deducts the levy from wages and remits it
- For an employer: deduct the employee's share, add the employer's three per cent, pay monthly to the Comptroller of Inland Revenue
- For an employer: furnish a statement of each employed person's wages and the amount of levy with each payment
- No exemption on grounds of nationality, residence or immigration status - the exemptions are for named offices and for certain internationally funded experts
At a glance
- Employee rate, first band
- 0 per cent up to $18,720
Section 3(2)(a). The Act names no currency; the Federation uses the East Caribbean dollar.
- Employee rate, second band
- 3.5 per cent
On wages between $18,720 and $78,000, under section 3(2)(b).
- Employee rate, third band
- 10 per cent
On the portion between $78,000.01 and $96,000.01, under section 3(2)(c)(ii).
- Employee rate, top band
- 12 per cent
On the portion exceeding $96,000, under section 3(2)(d)(iii).
- Employer rate
- 3 per cent of all wages
Flat across every band, including the band on which the employee pays nothing.
- Who it falls on
- Every person employed in the Federation
Section 3(1). "Employed person" is defined by reference to the employments listed in the First Schedule to the Social Security Act, Cap. 22.10, which we did not retrieve.
- Who collects it
- The Social Security Board, for the Comptroller of Inland Revenue
Section 6. It is not a social security contribution, and a payslip showing both is showing two separate statutes.
- Treatment under the Income Tax Act
- A deductible expense
Section 11 of the Levy Act makes it deductible, which only matters for a company, since individuals are outside the income tax charge.
"No income tax" is true of one statute
The claim that Saint Kitts and Nevis has no income tax is accurate as a statement about the Income Tax Act, whose charging section has not applied to anyone other than a company since 1 May 1980. It is a poor description of what happens to a salary. The Housing and Social Development Levy reaches twelve per cent at the top band and applies to the wages of every person employed in the Federation, and Social Security takes a further five per cent from an employee between sixteen and sixty-two. The two together are a payroll deduction of seventeen per cent on a high wage. Whether that counts as income tax is a question of classification with real consequences - for foreign tax credits, for treaty relief - and it has no bearing on what is deducted.
An employment test, not a residence test
Nothing in the Levy Act turns on where the employee is resident or what passport they hold. Section 3(1) imposes the levy on the wages of every person employed in Saint Christopher and Nevis, and the exemptions in section 4 are for the Governor-General, the Deputy Governor-General, ministers of religion, foreign diplomats and certain internationally funded experts. A worker on a six-month permit is in it from the first payslip; a permanent resident working here is in it; a non-resident employed by a Kittitian employer is in it. The Income Tax Act's six-month residence test has no application to the levy at all.
What the law says
«AN ACT TO IMPOSE A LEVY ON THE WAGES OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN SAINT CHRISTOPHER AND NEVIS FOR PURPOSES OF PROVIDING NECESSARY HOUSING AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR RELATED OR INCIDENTAL MATTERS.»About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(i) 3.5% by the employee on the portion of the wages up to $78,000.00;
(ii) 10% by the employee on the portion of the wages between $78,000.01 and $96,000.01; and»The bands are marginal, not cliff-edged: each rate applies to the portion of wages in its own slice.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«the emoluments of any expert, adviser, technician or other official whose salary or principal emolument is not payable by the Government of Saint Christopher and Nevis and who is brought to Saint Christopher and Nevis under the auspices of any regional or international organisation as may be prescribed»The nearest thing to an expatriate exemption, and it is narrow: the person must be brought here under the auspices of a prescribed organisation and paid by someone other than the Government.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Social Security Board to administer and collect Levy on behalf of Comptroller.»About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Levy to be a deductible expense under the Income Tax Act»About this source
Prepares the revised editions of Kittitian law and hosts the annual collections of Acts and statutory rules and orders.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current state of the citizenship-by-investment rules: it prints the 2011 Regulations as a schedule to the Citizenship Act with no indication they were repealed in 2023. Nor for completeness - the 2020 edition is a supplement of fifty-six chapters rather than a corpus, so absence from it is not evidence that a law does not exist, and the social security and income tax Acts are simply not in it. Nor for anything after a revision's cut-off: the income tax Act it serves is as at 31 December 2002 and prints Omitted because of cut-off date in place of a section. Its annual instrument folders are not exhaustive either; one begins at number five.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The edition read is the Law Commission's revised edition as at 31 December 2017 and the last amendment it records is Act 16 of 2014. Government announcements in 2024 described an amendment raising the exempt threshold; we did not retrieve it, so the bands quoted here may understate the exemption.
The Act states its bands in dollars and never names the currency. Nothing is converted.
"Employed person" is defined by reference to the First Schedule to the Social Security Act, Cap. 22.10, which is not in the Law Commission's 2020 supplement and which we did not retrieve. Exactly which engagements count as employment for the levy is therefore not established here.
Severance payment contributions under the Protection of Employment Act are also collected by the Social Security Board but are neither the levy nor a social security contribution.