Tax Residency in Saint Kitts and Nevis
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Antigua and Barbuda on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Antigua and Barbuda to Saint Kitts and Nevis · When you become a tax resident
There is no personal income tax, and the provision that abolished it is datable to the day: section 3(3) of the Income Tax Act, inserted by Act 14 of 1980, disapplies the charging section to income accruing on or after 1 May 1980 to any person other than a company. The Act's residence test survives around it - six months in the basic year, which is the calendar year - and still matters for the handful of charges that remain. What does not disappear is the deduction from wages. The Housing and Social Development Levy taxes employment income on a progressive scale reaching twelve per cent, collected by the Social Security Board for the Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and anyone describing this country as having no tax on earnings is describing one statute and ignoring another.
At a glance
- Personal income tax
- None since 1 May 1980
Section 3(3) of the Income Tax Act, inserted by Act 14 of 1980, disapplies the charging section to any person other than a company for income accruing from that date. This is the instrument behind the claim that intermediaries make without citing anything.
- Residence test in the Income Tax Act
- 6 months in the basic year
The second proviso to section 3(1) writes "a period equal in the whole to six months in the basic year", and it is cumulative - "at one or more times" - rather than continuous.
- Basic year
- The 12 months to 31 December before the year of assessment
Section 4(2), which also lets the Commissioners accept a different accounting date for a trade.
- Corporation tax
- 35 per centas of 2002-01-01
Section 31(1)(b) as substituted by Act 2 of 2001, charging income earned in 2002 and thereafter. The revised edition we read is as at 31 December 2002 and later changes would not appear in it.
- Housing and Social Development Levy, employee
- 0 per cent up to $18,720, then 3.5, 10 and 12 per cent
Section 3(2) of the Levy Act as substituted by Act 12 of 2011 and amended by Act 16 of 2014. The Act states the bands in dollars without naming the currency; the Federation uses the East Caribbean dollar.
- Housing and Social Development Levy, employer
- 3 per cent of all wages
The employer's rate is flat across every band in section 3(2).
- Social Security, employee
- 5 per cent, ages 16 to 62
Stated by the Social Security Board. The employer adds five per cent plus one per cent for employment injury, making eleven per cent in all; outside that age range only one per cent is payable.
- Capital gains
- Charged only on assets disposed of within a year, and not to individuals since 1980
Section 3(2) charges a short-term gain at half the normal rate capped at twenty per cent, but it sits inside section 3, which subsection (3) disapplies to anyone other than a company.
- Citizenship by investment and tax residence
- Unconnected
Nothing in the Citizenship Act or the 2024 Regulations touches tax, and the Income Tax Act's residence test is about days, not about citizenship.
Requirements
- Nothing to register for as an individual with no business: the charging section does not apply to you
- Six months in the Federation in the basic year is the Income Tax Act's own residence threshold, and the basic year is the twelve months ending 31 December before the year of assessment
- If you work for an employer here, the Housing and Social Development Levy is deducted from your wages by the employer and paid monthly to the Comptroller of Inland Revenue
- If you are employed here between the ages of 16 and 62, five per cent of your wages goes to Social Security as well, with the employer paying a further six per cent
- If you operate through a company incorporated here, corporation tax applies
In detail
The sentence that abolished income tax
Every guide to this country says there is no personal income tax and almost none of them says why. The reason is section 3(3) of the Income Tax Act, a single sentence inserted by Act 14 of 1980: the charging section does not apply to income accruing on or after 1 May 1980 to any person other than a company. What that sentence does not do is repeal anything. Section 3(1) still charges income from trades, employments, dividends, pensions, rents and annual gains; section 31(1)(a) still carries a table of individual rate bands running to fifty-five per cent, substituted by Act 13 of 1976. Reading the Act cold, an individual appears to be taxed. The disapplication is three lines further down and is easy to miss, which may be why so much commentary cites the abolition to "1980" without a provision.
No income tax, twelve per cent on wages
The Housing and Social Development Levy Act imposes a levy on the wages of every person employed in the Federation, on four bands: nothing up to $18,720, three and a half per cent above that, ten per cent on the slice between $78,000 and $96,000, and twelve per cent above $96,000, with the employer paying a flat three per cent throughout. The employer deducts it at source and pays it monthly to the Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and the Social Security Board collects it on his behalf. Add the five per cent Social Security contribution for an employee between sixteen and sixty-two and the deduction from a high wage is seventeen per cent. None of this is income tax as a matter of statute, and all of it comes out of the same payslip. The distinction matters for treaty and foreign-credit purposes and matters not at all for the question of what reaches the bank.
A residence test that still has work to do
Because the charging section was disapplied rather than repealed, its residence test is still there and still governs the parts of the Act that bite - companies, and the rules on income arising outside the State. The test has two limbs, and the second one is the one people quote: not having resided in the State "at one or more times for a period equal in the whole to six months in the basic year". It is cumulative, like Peru's 183-day count, rather than a continuous-presence test. The first limb is about purpose and intention and is not a day count at all. A person who has been here five months with the intention of settling does not satisfy the exemption, whatever the calendar says.
A revision twenty-four years old
The Income Tax Act we read is the revised edition showing the law as at 31 December 2002, published by the Inland Revenue Department. It is plainly not current: section 35 is printed as "Substituted by Act 14 of 1980; Repealed and Replaced by Act 6/2006" followed by "Omitted because of cut-off date", which is the revision telling the reader in terms that it stops before 2006. Corporation tax, withholding tax and the rest should be checked against later amendments before anything is relied on. What is safe from this edition is section 3(3), because it is the provision that makes the whole question moot for individuals, and because nothing we found suggests personal income tax has returned.
Country-level policy
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.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«This section shall not apply to income which accrues on or after 1<sup>st</sup> May, 1980 to any person (other than a company) liable under this section.»The abolition of personal income tax, in one sentence, with a date. The charging section itself was never repealed, which is why the Act still reads as though individuals were taxed - section 31(1)(a) still carries the rate bands substituted by Act 13 of 1976.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administers Kittitian taxes and publishes the tax statutes it applies.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for current rates. The income tax Act it publishes is a revision as at 31 December 2002 that explicitly omits later material, so it is safe only for the 1980 provision disapplying the charge to individuals, which nothing has reversed.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Provided also that tax shall not be payable in respect of any income arising outside of the State and accruing to any person who is in the State for some temporary purpose only and not with any intention to establish his or her residence therein and who has not actually resided in the State at one or more times for a period equal in the whole to six months in the basic year»A two-limbed test: temporary purpose and no intention to establish residence, plus fewer than six months in aggregate. Both limbs have to be satisfied for the exemption, so six months is a ceiling on days and intention is assessed separately.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administers Kittitian taxes and publishes the tax statutes it applies.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for current rates. The income tax Act it publishes is a revision as at 31 December 2002 that explicitly omits later material, so it is safe only for the 1980 provision disapplying the charge to individuals, which nothing has reversed.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«the basic year shall be the period of twelve months ending on the 31<sup>st</sup> December immediately preceding the year of assessment»The Kittitian tax year is the calendar year. A proviso lets the Commissioners accept a different accounting date where a person makes up the accounts of a trade to some other day.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administers Kittitian taxes and publishes the tax statutes it applies.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for current rates. The income tax Act it publishes is a revision as at 31 December 2002 that explicitly omits later material, so it is safe only for the 1980 provision disapplying the charge to individuals, which nothing has reversed.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«in respect of a company there shall be charged, levied and collected corporation tax of 35 per cent in respect of income»About this source
Administers Kittitian taxes and publishes the tax statutes it applies.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for current rates. The income tax Act it publishes is a revision as at 31 December 2002 that explicitly omits later material, so it is safe only for the 1980 provision disapplying the charge to individuals, which nothing has reversed.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«there is imposed a Levy upon the wages of every person employed in Saint Christopher and Nevis at the rates set out in this section.»Every person employed here, with no nationality or residence qualification. The exemptions in section 4 are for the Governor-General, the Deputy Governor-General, ministers of religion, foreign diplomats and certain internationally funded experts.
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
«(a) in the case of an employee whose wages are up to $18,720.00 0% by the employee, and 3% by the employer in respect of the wages the employer pays to the employee;
(b) in the case of an employee whose wages range between $18,720.00 and $78,000.00, 3.5% by the employee, and 3% by the employer in respect of the wages the employer pays to the employee;»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
«(iii) 12% by the employee on the portion of the wages which exceed $96,000.00; and
(iv) 3% by the employer in respect of the wages the employer pays to the employee.»The top band. Twelve per cent on wages above the threshold is not nothing, and it is levied on exactly the kind of income the Income Tax Act stopped charging in 1980.
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 employer shall deduct from the wages of an employed person the Levy contribution required under section 3 and shall pay it to the Comptroller»Deducted at source by the employer, like income tax withholding, and collected by the Social Security Board on the Comptroller's behalf under section 6.
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
Practical notes
The Income Tax Act as published by the Inland Revenue Department is a revision as at 31 December 2002 and says so on every page. The Law Commission's 2020 revised edition does not include it. Figures for corporation tax, withholding tax and the unincorporated business tax should be taken from a current instrument, not from this record, which quotes the 2002 edition for the one proposition that has not changed.
Several figures in the Act's section 31(1)(a) rate table were garbled in extraction into mathematical notation. The table is spent for individuals in any event and nothing from it is stated here.
The Housing and Social Development Levy Act as read is the 2017 revised edition. Act 16 of 2014 is the last amendment it records. A 2024 amendment to the Act raising the exemption threshold was reported in government announcements; we did not retrieve it, so the bands quoted here are those in the 2017 edition and may understate the exempt threshold.
The Levy Act's own section 11 makes the levy a deductible expense under the Income Tax Act, which is a reminder that the two statutes were designed to sit together.
The Act states its bands in dollars and never names the currency. The Federation's currency is the East Caribbean dollar, which the 2024 Citizenship Regulations write as "EC$" when they mean it and "US$" when they do not. Nothing here is converted.
- administersIncome Tax Act, Cap. 20.22, Revised Edition showing the law as at 31 December 2002
Inland Revenue Department (Saint Kitts and Nevis) · consolidated to 2002-12-31
About this source
Administers Kittitian taxes and publishes the tax statutes it applies.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for current rates. The income tax Act it publishes is a revision as at 31 December 2002 that explicitly omits later material, so it is safe only for the 1980 provision disapplying the charge to individuals, which nothing has reversed.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesHousing and Social Development Levy Act, Cap. 20.21, Revised Edition showing the law as at 31 December 2017
Law Commission of Saint Christopher and Nevis · consolidated to 2017-12-31
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
- administersContributions
Social Security Board (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
About this source
Runs the social security fund and collects the housing and social development levy on behalf of the Comptroller.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the statute: the Social Security Act is not retrievable from any government source we found, and these pages describe the scheme rather than the law. Nor for medical care - the scheme pays cash benefits and nothing here establishes what treatment costs. It also attributes the levy to an Act number that is not the consolidated chapter, so its own citations should not be followed without checking.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source