MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sameer Tegally, Sonia Xavier and Ashvan Luckraz, Venture Law
• television broadcasting; • sugar production; • newspaper and magazine publishing; • the construction business; and • certain operations in the tourism sector. 9. Tax 9.1 Taxation of Business Activities
following the end of the income year. If tax is overpaid, a refund of the excess tax is made to the taxpayer. Every month, every employer shall pay the amount of contribution to the MRA in respect of every employee who was employed during the preceding month. Currently, the CSG and National Solidarity Fund (NSF) contributions are payable at the prescribed rate on an employee’s basic wage/salary. An employer is required to contribute 2.5% of remu - neration to the NSF and to pay a monthly rate of 1.5% of each employee’s basic salary. Under the CSG: • employees earning MUR50,000 or less monthly will be subject to a contribution of 1.5%, and 3% for the employers; • employees earning more than MUR50,000 monthly will be subject to a contribution of 3%, and 6% for the employers; • a public sector employee earning MUR50,000 or less monthly will not be subject to the contribution, and 4.5% for the employers; • a public sector employee earning more than MUR50,000 monthly will not be subject to the con - tribution, and 9% for the employers; and • an employee who is in domestic service earn - ing MUR3,000 or less monthly, from one or more employers, shall not be subject to the contribution, and 3% for the employers. Fair Share Contribution An additional 15% tax has been imposed on indi - viduals whose annual income (including dividends) exceeds Rs 12 million. Taxes Applicable to Businesses A resident company is chargeable to tax in respect of its worldwide income, whether its foreign source income is remitted or not to Mauritius. A non-resident corporation is liable to tax on any Mauritius-sourced income, subject to any applicable tax treaty provi - sions. Corporations are liable to income tax on their net income, currently at a flat rate of 15%.
Resident individuals are subject to Mauritian income tax on their worldwide income from all sources, except that income derived from outside Mauritius is taxable only to the extent that it is remitted in Mauritius. Income from employment duties performed in Mauri - tius is deemed to have been derived from Mauritius. A non-resident is taxable on income derived from Mauritius; for instance, income derived from any busi - ness carried on wholly or partly in Mauritius. Employees Currently, individuals’ incomes are taxed incremen - tally; ie, the chargeable incomes are divided into dif - ferent revenue brackets. Each bracket has a specific tax rate starting at 0% and is capped at a maximum of 20%. The income tax rates and bands have been revised. The revised progressive tax bands are as follows: 0% on the first Rs 500,000 of chargeable income, 10% on the next MUR500,000, and 20% on the remaining income. An individual (employed or self-employed) has to file income tax returns for the preceding income year, declaring their income and deductions to the Mauri - tius Revenue Authority (MRA). Employers are required to operate a cumulative sys - tem of pay as you earn (PAYE), whereby tax withheld from emoluments made available to an employee must be remitted to the MRA within 20 days. If tax is underpaid under the PAYE system, the unpaid balance becomes payable on or before 30 September
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