Guyana taxes resident companies on worldwide income, with non-resident companies that carry on a trade or business in Guyana taxed only on Guyana-source income. Corporate tax rates differ by company type: commercial companies (deriving at least 75% of gross income from goods not manufactured by the company, or engaged in telecommunications, banking, or insurance) are taxed at 40% of chargeable profits or 2% minimum corporation tax (MCT) on turnover, whichever is higher, while non-commercial companies pay 25%. The system is administered by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The tax year aligns with the calendar year, with assessments based on income earned in the preceding year. Corporate tax obligations are structured around quarterly advance payments due March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15, based on the previous year's tax liability.
Guyana's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 25%.
The headline personal income tax (PIT) rate is 35%.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 14%.
Per a current Legal 500 Private Client guide, an individual is Guyana tax resident if any of the following applies: presence in Guyana for more than 183 days in any calendar year (cumulative, not necessarily consecutive), permanent residence in Guyana except for temporary reasonable absences, or presence in Guyana with intent to reside there permanently. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; foreign-source income of non-residents is generally not taxed. Separately, capital gains tax applies to disposals of Guyana-situated assets regardless of the disposer's residency status - gains within 12 months of acquisition are treated as ordinary income, gains realized between 1 and 25 years after acquisition are subject to capital gains tax at 20%, and gains realized more than 25 years after acquisition are exempt.
A non-resident company that carries on a trade or business in Guyana is subject to corporate tax on income directly or indirectly accruing in or derived from Guyana, consistent with a permanent establishment standard under Guyana's tax treaties with Canada, the United Kingdom, and CARICOM member states; the Double Taxation Relief (Guyana) Order 1992 (implementing the UK treaty) provides that business profits not arising through a permanent establishment are taxable only in the enterprise's residence country, while PE-attributable profits may be taxed in Guyana.
Guyana has no Controlled Foreign Company regime under the Income Tax Act. The Corporation Tax Act instead relies on general anti-avoidance provisions, with the Guyana Revenue Authority monitoring arm's-length principles for intra-group transactions as its primary tool against profit-shifting, rather than a formal CFC attribution regime.
No formal ratio-based thin capitalization rule is imposed in Guyana generally. A targeted anti-avoidance rule does apply to a specific fact pattern: where a Guyana company pays or accrues interest on securities issued to a non-resident company that is either its parent or a fellow subsidiary under common non-resident ownership, restrictions apply to the interest deduction, administered under the Corporation Tax Act's general anti-avoidance and arm's-length framework described above (Guyana Revenue Authority oversight of intra-group transactions) rather than a separate numeric debt-to-equity ratio.
Guyana classifies entities under its own domestic Income Tax Act (Cap. 81:01) and Corporation Tax Act (Cap. 81:03) rather than offering an elective check-the-box system, and no ATAD2-style anti-hybrid mismatch regime addressing double-deduction or deduction-without-inclusion outcomes has been identified in Guyanese tax law.
No domestic FBAR-equivalent regime requires Guyana residents to separately disclose foreign financial accounts, and Guyana is not currently a CRS participating jurisdiction, so it does not automatically exchange financial account information with foreign tax authorities under the OECD's Common Reporting Standard. US persons remain independently subject to FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) and potentially Form 8938 regardless of Guyana's own rules.
Dividends received from Guyana-resident companies are exempt from corporation tax for the recipient company, functioning as a domestic participation exemption; no corresponding exemption for dividends from foreign subsidiaries is identified, and capital gains (including on shares) are instead taxed separately at 20% on disposal, or as ordinary income if disposed of within 12 months of acquisition.
Relief for taxation suffered on foreign-source income in an overseas jurisdiction may be available to a Guyana-resident company under an applicable double tax treaty (Canada, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, or CARICOM member states); where a treaty rate is higher than Guyana's statutory withholding rate, the lower statutory rate applies instead.
Guyana's treaty network is somewhat broader than many of its Caribbean neighbors, with treaties covering Canada (signed October 15, 1985, confirmed via Canada's own Department of Finance treaty list), the United Kingdom (signed August 31, 1992, in force December 18, 1992), the CARICOM member states (Double Taxation Relief (Taxes on Income) (Member States of the Caribbean Community) Order 1995), and the United Arab Emirates. Where a treaty applies, dividend withholding tax can be reduced from the 20% domestic rate to 15%, 10%, or 0% depending on the specific treaty and ownership threshold - for example, the UK treaty caps portfolio dividends at 15% and direct-investment dividends at 10%. No comprehensive US income tax treaty exists (only the 1992 information-exchange agreement noted above).