French overseas collectivity (distinct from the southern Dutch side of the island, Sint Maarten). Since July 2007, the territorial council sets its own tax rules independently of mainland France, with its own General Tax Code and tax procedure code.
Saint-Martin has operated its own autonomous tax jurisdiction since 2007, with its own Code General des Impots de la Collectivite de Saint-Martin (CGISM), separate from mainland France's General Tax Code. Tax-resident taxpayers (meeting the five-year threshold described in the Residency section of this page) are taxed in Saint-Martin on worldwide income, with corporate income tax levied under CGISM Article 209 on enterprises operating in Saint-Martin.
Per Saint-Martin's own official tax portal (impots-saint-martin.fr), the individual income tax return filing deadline is generally 31 May of the following year; corporations pay income tax by quarterly installments due the 15th of March, June, September, and December following the closing date of their fiscal year (CGISM Article 1668).
The standard corporate tax (Impot sur les Societes) rate is 20%, with a reduced rate of 10% applying to the first EUR 40,000 of taxable annual profit. Long-term capital gains are subject to a separate specific regime. Saint-Martin has operated its own autonomous tax jurisdiction since 2007, with its own Code General des Impots de la Collectivite de Saint-Martin (CGISM), and corporate tax is levied under CGISM Article 209 on enterprises operating in Saint-Martin ("entreprises exploitees a Saint-Martin"), determined by any of three non-cumulative criteria: operating an establishment in Saint-Martin, conducting operations there through a dependent representative, or completing a full commercial cycle there. This 20%/10% rate structure is notably lower than mainland France's standard corporate rate, consistent with Saint-Martin's broader design as a lower-tax autonomous collectivity.
Personal income tax uses a progressive bracket structure with rates including 30% for the tranche above EUR 31,745 up to EUR 85,286, and 41% for the tranche above EUR 85,286 - a materially different (and in the middle brackets, notably lower) structure than mainland France's own barème. After the reference income is calculated, Saint-Martin applies a flat 40% allowance (abattement) - compared to 30% in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion, or 40% in Guyane and Mayotte among the French overseas departments, and no equivalent allowance in mainland France. Saint-Martin's local tax code includes both income tax (impot sur le revenu) and corporate tax as impots de Saint-Martin, with the France-Saint-Martin fiscal convention (signed 21 December 2010) allocating taxing rights and eliminating double taxation between the French State and the collectivity for residents of each.
0% - Saint-Martin has no TVA (VAT). Instead, a general turnover tax (taxe generale sur le chiffre d'affaires, TGCA) applies at 2%, alongside other specific taxes (inheritance/gift duties, an annual flat business contribution, a road tax on motor vehicles, a lease duty, and a tourist tax).
An individual whose tax domicile was in mainland France or a French overseas department within the five years before establishing in Saint-Martin can only be treated as Saint-Martin tax resident after having actually resided there for at least five years - before that threshold is met, they are deemed resident in Guadeloupe for income tax purposes instead. The same five-year clock applies to companies: a company whose tax domicile was in mainland France or an overseas department within the prior five years can only become Saint-Martin tax resident after its effective management has been seated there for five years, or after being controlled (directly or indirectly) by individuals who have themselves been Saint-Martin residents for five years. Once the five-year threshold is met, tax-resident taxpayers of the Collectivity of Saint-Martin are taxed in Saint-Martin on their global (worldwide) revenues. Saint-Martin does retain a narrower, genuinely territorial "source" competence specifically for capital gains: since 2010 it can tax capital gains on Saint-Martin real property made by persons domiciled in mainland/overseas France (or deemed to be, under the five-year rule) regardless of their general residence status, with double taxation neutralized via a tax credit under the France-Saint-Martin tax convention.
Under CGISM Article 209, an enterprise is considered to operate in Saint-Martin, and subject to Saint-Martin corporate tax, if any of three non-cumulative criteria is met: operating an establishment in Saint-Martin, conducting operations there through a dependent representative, or completing a full commercial cycle there. This is a broader test than the classic fixed-place-of-business standard alone, incorporating the dependent-agent and complete-business-cycle concepts found in some Francophone tax codes.
No CFC-specific provision under Saint-Martin's own separate tax code (the Code General des Impots de Saint-Martin, CGISM) was found. As with Saint-Barthelemy, this matters specifically because France's own national CFC regime (50% control threshold, reduced to 5% in certain low-tax scenarios, enacted 1980) is French national law that does not automatically extend to Saint-Martin's autonomous local tax code - Saint-Martin has administered its own tax system independently of France's General Tax Code since 2007. Saint-Martin's corporate system instead grants an almost complete exemption for dividends and capital gains arising from the sale of shareholdings, a participation-exemption-style relief that promotes investment rather than an attribution regime reaching into foreign subsidiaries.
No thin capitalization ratio or related-party interest-deduction cap specific to Saint-Martin's own tax code was found.
Saint-Martin classifies entities under its own separate CGISM tax code 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, consistent with the absence of a CFC regime described elsewhere on this page; France's own national anti-hybrid rules are French national law and do not automatically extend to Saint-Martin's autonomous local tax code, which has operated independently of France's General Tax Code since 2007.
No domestic FBAR-equivalent regime requires Saint-Martin residents to separately disclose foreign financial accounts. Saint-Martin (the French side) is a CRS participating jurisdiction: like Saint Barthelemy, it has been treated as a Reportable Jurisdiction for CRS purposes since 2016, as a French territory bound by EU savings-taxation and administrative-cooperation legislation. US persons remain independently subject to FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) and potentially Form 8938 regardless of Saint-Martin's own rules.
Saint-Martin's corporate tax system grants an almost complete exemption for dividends and capital gains arising from the sale of shareholdings, a participation-exemption-style relief that promotes investment; specific minimum-ownership or holding-period conditions attached to this exemption are not itemized in available primary sources.
Double taxation between Saint-Martin and mainland or overseas France is neutralized primarily through the France-Saint-Martin fiscal convention (signed December 21, 2010), which allocates taxing rights between the two and provides a tax credit mechanism specifically for Saint-Martin's real-property capital gains source rule described elsewhere on this page; a broader general unilateral foreign tax credit mechanism for third-country income is not confirmed in available primary sources, and Saint-Martin does not appear to independently negotiate its own bilateral treaties with third countries.
Unlike Saint-Barthelemy, Saint-Martin has its own specific bilateral tax convention with the French State (2010), which expressly treats "the State" and "the collectivity of Saint-Martin" as two separate contracting parties for purposes of the convention. This convention (covering income and capital gains taxes, and separately neutralizing the double taxation that would otherwise arise under Saint-Martin's real-property capital gains source rule) is the primary mechanism preventing double taxation between Saint-Martin and mainland/overseas France - it is not a conventional international double tax treaty of the kind Saint-Martin would negotiate with a third country. A lower-quality aggregator's claim that Saint-Martin has "a network of double taxation treaties with 127 countries" is almost certainly a confusion with France's own national treaty network and should not be relied upon; Saint-Martin as a fiscally autonomous collectivity does not appear to independently negotiate its own treaties with third countries the way a sovereign state would. As with Sint Maarten on the Dutch side of the same island, there is no double tax treaty between Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten specifically, so cross-border double taxation between the two sides of the island can still occur.