Bermuda: Payroll, customs and indirect tax measures in 2023-2024 budget

The 2023-2024 budget—presented 17 February 2023—includes various changes with respect to payroll, customs and indirect taxes.

Regarding payroll taxes, the budget proposes—

• Employer payroll taxes will either stay the same or decrease compared with last year, depending on tax band size and sector.
• The temporary payroll tax concessions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic will also end in March 2024.
• Employee payroll taxes will be lower for those earning less than $132,000*, which is 86.0% of Bermuda’s workforce. However, such taxes will increase for those earning above that amount.
• The government has introduced a fifth high-income tax bracket and allowed employers to be exempt from paying employer payroll tax for employees on maternity and paternity leave.

Regarding customs and indirect taxes and other miscellaneous fees, the budget proposes—

• Extension of customs duty exemption for investments in plant and equipment to the personal care and personal fitness sectors (currently only for restaurants and retailers)
• Revisions to the sugar tax (this will now only apply to high sugar consumables)
• Elimination of taxes on aggregate imports used to manufacture concrete and concrete blocks
• 5% increase stamp duty fees, trademark fees, fines, solid waste dumping fees, immigration fees (with the exception of passport fees), planning fees, seaborne shipping fees
• Introduction of a regulatory fee for corporate compliance by the registrar of companies
• Introduction of fees to access government information through the public access to information regime (PATI)
• Increase in court fees

Regarding land valuation and the related taxation, the budget proposes—

• 5% increase in the top two bands of land tax
• Introduction of a fee to register properties as vacation rentals

Read a February 2023 report [PDF 694 KB] prepared by the KPMG member firm in Bermuda

_{$=Bermudian dollar}