British Overseas Territory in the Eastern Caribbean; a member of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
Montserrat taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents on Montserrat-source income only. Montserrat has no CFC regime. Montserrat operates a self-assessment system.
The Montserrat tax year is the calendar year.
30% flat rate on chargeable income. International Business Companies (IBCs) - see Residency below - are exempt from this tax on income derived outside Montserrat.
Progressive, 5% to 40%, with an annual tax-free threshold of $15,000.
Montserrat has no broad-based VAT/GST on domestic supplies. Instead, a Consumption Tax applying to imported goods (ranging 5% to 15% depending on the item) is levied alongside customs duty under the Customs Duties and Consumption Tax Act, based on the CIF value - a narrower import-focused tax rather than a general sales tax on all domestic transactions. A single lower-quality source's claim of a flat 15% standard VAT rate is not corroborated by Montserrat's own governing legislation and is not relied on here.
An individual is resident in Montserrat for a year of assessment if (a) their permanent place of abode is in Montserrat and they are physically present for some period during the basic year (unless absent solely for education, medical treatment, or government duty), or (b) they are physically present in Montserrat for not less than 183 days during the basic year, or (c) they are physically present for some period during the basic year continuous with a qualifying period in the immediately preceding or succeeding year. Non-domiciled residents are taxed only on income remitted to Montserrat rather than worldwide income - a remittance-basis system distinct from the pure worldwide-taxation approach used by many other jurisdictions in the region. Companies incorporated in Montserrat as International Business Companies (IBCs) under separate legislation are exempt from local tax on income derived outside Montserrat, including income tax, capital gains tax, and withholding tax on dividends, interest, and royalties - provided no local residents are shareholders and no local real estate is owned by the IBC.
A non-Montserrat entity has a Montserrat permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Montserrat on the entity's behalf, assessed under Montserrat domestic law.
No CFC-style attribution provision was found in Montserrat's tax legislation. As a British Overseas Territory, this matters specifically because the UK's own CFC regime is UK national law and does not automatically extend to Montserrat's separate tax system - the two should not be conflated, consistent with the same finding confirmed for other British Overseas Territories, such as the Falkland Islands. EY's own Worldwide Corporate Tax Guide groups Montserrat under an abbreviated "other jurisdictions" chapter rather than a full standalone entry, consistent with its very small scale and simple tax system.
No statutory thin capitalization ratio or interest-limitation rule is identified in available sources for Montserrat.
Montserrat does not use an elective check-the-box classification system. Montserrat does not have a comprehensive ATAD2-style anti-hybrid regime.
No foreign bank account or foreign financial asset reporting regime exists requiring residents to separately disclose foreign accounts; foreign income is reported through the standard annual tax return.
Montserrat does not provide a broad participation exemption for foreign dividends; relief from double taxation is available primarily through Montserrat's limited treaty arrangements.
Montserrat has a foreign tax credit mechanism for foreign tax paid on foreign-source income also taxed in Montserrat, capped at the Montserrat tax otherwise due on that income.
No comprehensive double tax agreement network was identified for Montserrat beyond the UK savings-income information-exchange arrangement noted above (an information-exchange instrument, not a full bilateral DTA). Montserrat's very small financial-services footprint (per the Tax Justice Network's Corporate Tax Haven Index, under 0.1% of multinational-corporation cross-border investment activity globally passes through Montserrat) is consistent with a minimal or nonexistent treaty network, though this is an inference from the jurisdiction's overall profile rather than a primary-source-confirmed zero.