Barbados
Barbados: 6 company types, its taxes, banking and business environment.
Forming a company
Company types in Barbados
The 6 forms a founder can choose here, each with its own figures. Open one for its sources.
Doing business here
Business accounts
Providers whose own published list of countries names Barbados. A listing means a company formed here may apply, not that it will be accepted.
Not in our records No provider's country list has been read for Barbados.
EU listings
Two lists a bank checks when it opens an account for a company or its owner.
- EU high-risk third countries (AML)
- Not listed
- EU non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes
- Not listedOfficial EUR-Lex, 52026XG01465, Annex I as of 2026-02-17
Official sites
The authorities’ own sites for Barbados: where to register, file and check.
Blocs and agreements
The trade arrangements Barbados belongs to, as each arrangement’s own texts state them: since when, and what each covers. What a membership means for a business is for you to judge.
- CARICOM Single Market and Economy
- Single market · since 1 January 2006
Covers goods, services, establishment, capital, movement of people, a common external tariff.
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They were Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Regional and customs arrangements only, 36 of them; bilateral trade agreements are not yet in our records.
Tax
Company tax
Tax, and what the company owes the registry each year.
- Corporate income tax
- 9%
- Distributions
- Not in our records
- Audit
- A shareholders' resolution, consented to by all shareholders, may dispense with the auditor for a company that is not public and whose gross revenue and assets (with affiliates) do not exceed BBD 1,000,000; the resolution is valid only until the next annual meeting (Companies Act s.156).Official The registry or ministry page
- Small-company relief
- Not in our records
- Annual obligations
- Not in our records
- Annual registry fee
- BBD 100Official The registry or ministry page as of 2026-10-14
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to accompany the annual return filed under 2001-30. section 15A $ 100
VAT
The tax on what the company sells in Barbados, and when it must register, as the tax authority states it.
- Standard rate
- 17.5%
A 22% rate applies to telecommunications services and a 7.5% rate to accommodating direct tourism services.
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The VAT Rates are as follows: 0% - Zero-rated items 7.5% - VAT on accommodating direct tourism services 17.5% - Rate for standard supplies 22% - VAT on telecommunications services
- Other rates
- 7.5% Accommodating direct tourism services
- 0% Zero-rated items
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The VAT Rates are as follows: 0% - Zero-rated items 7.5% - VAT on accommodating direct tourism services 17.5% - Rate for standard supplies 22% - VAT on telecommunications services
- Registration threshold
- BBD 200,000
annual income or monthly revenue from taxable supplies; annual, or monthly revenue above 16,666.67
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Persons who meet the following criteria must register for VAT: Persons whose annual income is $200,000 or more Persons whose monthly revenue is greater than $16,666.67
- A foreign company
- See the note
The Barbados Revenue Authority pages read set out who must register, the rates and the filing periods, but say nothing about non-resident suppliers.
- Returns filed
- Monthly
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The VAT filing periods are shown in the below table: Reporting Period Period Period Number Category Dec 01 - Jan 31 1 202201
- Tax authority
- Registration page read 2026-10-22
Tax calendar
When the main returns and payments fall due in Barbados, tax year 2025, as the tax authority states it.
- Corporate tax return
- 15 June · each year
Filed in TAMIS with supporting financial statements. The rule records the calendar-year company (year end 31 December), which files by 15 June of the following year; the note on the same page gives 15 March for a year end of 1 January to 30 September.
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Companies with a year end between October 1st and December 31st are required to file by June 15 th of the following year.
- Corporate tax, final payment
- 15 June · each year
The balance of corporation tax is payable on filing, i.e. 15 June for a calendar-year company (15 March where the year ends between 1 January and 30 September). Two prepayments of 50% are made during the year; see cit_estimated_payment.
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Companies whose fiscal period ends at any time during the period October 1 st to December 31 st (both dates inclusive) must prepay as follows: 50% by December 15 50% by March 15 and any balance on filing on June 15.
- Corporate tax, instalments
- 15 December · twice a year
Two equal prepayments: 50% by 15 December of the current year and 50% by 15 March of the following year, for a company whose fiscal period ends between 1 October and 31 December; the rule records the first. A company whose fiscal period ends between 1 January and 30 September pays 50% by 15 September of the current year and the balance on filing on 15 March.
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Companies whose fiscal period ends at any time during the period October 1 st to December 31 st (both dates inclusive) must prepay as follows: 50% by December 15 50% by March 15 and any balance on filing on June 15.
- Personal income-tax return
- 30 April · each year
The return covers the previous calendar year and is filed in TAMIS. The Authority's press release for the 2025 income year states the filing deadline as 30 April 2026.
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A Personal Income Tax return is required to be filed once a year by April 30, for the previous calendar year's earnings.
- Personal income tax, final payment
- 30 April · each year
Any additional tax shown on the yearly return is payable by 30 April of the year after the income year, the same date as the return.
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Any additional taxes that are due should be paid by April 30 th of the following year.
- Personal income tax, instalments
- Not required here
The Authority's page on the individual's obligations sets one annual return and one payment date (30 April after the income year) and states no advance-payment or payment-on-account regime for personal income tax; PAYE deducted by the employer during the year is the only payment before that date. Read on 22 October 2026; a regime, if one exists, is not published on the personal income tax page.
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A Personal Income Tax return is required to be filed once a year by April 30, for the previous calendar year's earnings.
- VAT return
- Day 21 of the following month · every two months
The Authority's FAQ page publishes the filing periods with their due dates: each two-month period is due on the 21st of the month after it ends (e.g. 1 December - 31 January due 21 February). The published table covers 2017 taxable periods; the same 21-day rule is what the Authority's deadline reminders apply. The VAT Act, Cap. 87 (s. 21) puts the return within 21 days after the end of each taxable period but is available only as a PDF, whose text this fetcher cannot read.
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Reporting Period Period Period Number Category Due Date Dec 01 - Jan 31 1 201701 A, C Feb 21, 2017
- Payroll withholding
- Day 15 of the following month · each month
The Authority's page states a monthly PAYE return is filed by the 15th of each month; as the return covers the month's payroll, the rule records the 15th of the month following the pay month.
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Your employer is required to file a monthly PAYE return by the 15 th of each month for their employees, using the PAYE Tax Deduction Remittance Form, A47:004.
Running the company
Running a company here
Not in our records The authorities’ pages on running a company have not been read for Barbados yet.
Economy and trade
What it exports
Goods Barbados exported, by product, as a share of its goods exports each year. Exports include goods passing through for re-export. A share describes Barbados’s own trade; it does not compare places.
| Product (HS heading) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Value, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undenatured ethyl alcohol of an alcoholic strength by volume of less than 80 % vol; spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages HS 2208 | 32.9% | 30.9% | 20.0% | US$88 m |
| Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude; preparations not elsewhere specified or included, containing by weight 70 % or more of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from bituminous minerals, these oils being the basic constituents of the preparations; waste oils HS 2710 | 0.63% | 11.6% | 8.4% | US$37 m |
| Medicaments (excluding goods of heading 3002, 3005 or 3006) consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, put up in measured doses (including those in the form of transdermal administration systems) or in forms or packings for retail sale HS 3004 | 1.4% | 2.0% | 6.4% | US$28 m |
| Cruise ships, excursion boats, ferry-boats, cargo ships, barges and similar vessels for the transport of persons or goods HS 8901 | 11.5% | 3.1% | 4.6% | US$20 m |
| Ferrous waste and scrap; remelting scrap ingots of iron or steel HS 7204 | 0.48% | 1.8% | 3.6% | US$16 m |
| Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers' wares, whether or not containing cocoa; communion wafers, empty cachets of a kind suitable for pharmaceutical use, sealing wafers, rice paper and similar products HS 1905 | 3.1% | 3.0% | 3.5% | US$15 m |
| Margarine; edible mixtures or preparations of animal, vegetable or microbial fats or oils or of fractions of different fats or oils of this chapter, other than edible fats or oils or their fractions of heading 1516 HS 1517 | 0.21% | 0.70% | 3.3% | US$14 m |
| Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude HS 2709 | 5.8% | 14.5% | 3.1% | US$14 m |
| Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons HS 2711 | 0.29% | under 0.05% | 2.8% | US$12 m |
| Insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, anti-sprouting products and plant-growth regulators, disinfectants and similar products, put up in forms or packings for retail sale or as preparations or articles (for example, sulphur-treated bands, wicks and candles, and fly-papers) HS 3808 | 0.69% | 1.1% | 2.7% | US$12 m |
Total goods exports, 2024: US$441 m. The ten largest headings are shown.