Middle East

Bahrain

Corporate rate
0%*
Top personal rate
0%
VAT / GST rate
10%

*0% general corporate rate; 46% applies specifically to oil and gas corporations - see Corporate Tax Rate below.

One-sentence summary Corporate tax: 0% general rate, with a 46% rate applying specifically to oil and gas corporations (a 15% Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax may also apply to large multinational groups). Personal income tax: 0% - no personal income tax. VAT/consumption tax: 10% standard rate.

Tax System

Bahrain has historically had no general corporate income tax outside the oil and gas sector, though this is an actively-changing area: as of January 2026, Bahrain's National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) has enabled a Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (DMTT) annual return for in-scope multinational groups (those with consolidated revenue at or above EUR 750 million in at least 2 of the prior 4 fiscal years), aligned with Pillar Two, with an 18-month transitional filing period for a 31 December 2025 year-end (deadline 30 June 2027). Outside this Pillar Two-driven DMTT, Bahrain's tax base otherwise remains narrow and largely confined to oil and gas.

Tax Year & Key Deadlines

The Bahraini tax year generally follows the entity's own fiscal year (calendar year is common). For DMTT purposes specifically, filing deadlines run from the fiscal year-end per the transitional periods described in Tax System above.

Corporate Tax Rate

Bahrain's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 46% for oil corporations; 0% for other corporations (15% DMTT may apply).

Personal Tax Rate

0% - Bahrain has no personal income tax.

VAT / GST Rate

The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 10%.

Residency

Bahrain has no general personal income tax and taxes only locally-sourced income; where residency is relevant (e.g., for treaty purposes), a 183-day-plus-center-of-interest test is typically applied. Corporate tax is essentially absent outside oil and gas (46% rate); from 2025, a 15% Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT) applies to Bahrain-resident entities within large multinational groups meeting Pillar Two thresholds (EUR 750 million consolidated group revenue in at least 2 of the preceding 4 fiscal years, with an effective tax rate below 15%).

Permanent Establishment

A non-Bahraini entity has a Bahrain permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Bahrain on the entity's behalf, following the OECD Model Treaty definition as applied under Bahraini domestic law and any applicable tax treaty.

CFC (Controlled Foreign Company) Rules

Bahrain has no CFC rules.

Thin Capitalization

Bahrain has no specific thin capitalization or transfer pricing legislation.

Hybrid Entity Rules

Bahrain does not use an elective check-the-box classification system; entity classification generally follows the entity's actual legal characteristics. Bahrain does not have a comprehensive ATAD2-style anti-hybrid regime.

Foreign Bank Account / Foreign Financial Asset Reporting

No foreign bank account or foreign financial asset reporting regime exists in Bahrain requiring residents to separately disclose foreign accounts.

Participation Exemption

Bahrain does not have a Controlled Foreign Company regime and does not provide a broad participation exemption for foreign dividends in the European sense, consistent with its historically narrow tax base outside oil/gas and the new, separately-governed Pillar Two DMTT (see Tax System above).

Foreign Tax Credit

Bahrain does not have a broad general corporate income tax against which a conventional foreign tax credit would operate outside the oil and gas sector and the new DMTT framework (see Tax System above); confirm current specific treatment directly given Bahrain's actively-evolving tax base.

Treaty Network

Per GSL's detailed named-partner compilation, Bahrain has 50 double tax treaties in force plus 9 separate Tax Information Exchange Agreements (Canada, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, India, Norway, and Sweden). The 50 DTT partners include Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Oman, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkiye, the UAE, and the UK, among others. Bahrain ratified the OECD's Multilateral Instrument (MLI), effective June 1, 2022, and signed its most recent additions - a Hong Kong treaty (March 3, 2024), and treaties with the UAE and Oman (January 2025) - reflecting an actively expanding network. Bahrain imposes no withholding tax on dividends, interest, or royalties, so its treaty network mainly protects against taxation risk arising on the counterparty side.

Official tax authority: National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) - nbr.gov.bh
Source: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries - Bahrain (secondary compilation, cited per jurisdiction). Rates last reviewed by PwC: 26 July 2026. Page last verified: August 07, 2026. General information only - confirm current rates and any specific position with a licensed advisor in this jurisdiction before relying on this page.