Bermuda Tax Guide: No Income Tax, and a Payroll Tax You Pay

Bermuda shares first place in our world ranking with a FiScore of 10 out of 10, alongside five other jurisdictions. No income tax, no capital gains tax, no wealth tax, no VAT.

And most people who move there pay something like 10% of their salary to the government anyway. Here is how both of those are true.

What Bermuda genuinely does not have

• No personal income tax.
• No capital gains tax.
• No wealth tax.
• No VAT or sales tax.

That list is real, and it is what every comparison site prints.

The payroll tax, which is the actual story

Bermuda funds itself largely through payroll tax. It is levied on the employer, which is why it does not count as an income tax, and the employer is entitled to recover a defined share of it from the employee's pay.

That employee share is progressive, and for the year running from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 it looks like this.

The bands are marginal, and the whole thing is capped at 1,000,000 BMD of remuneration per person.

Call it what you like. Someone earning 150,000 BMD sees a deduction on every payslip that behaves exactly like income tax, and the number is not trivial.

The employer's own portion runs from 0.5% on payrolls under 200,000 BMD up to 9.5% above a million, and 9.75% for exempt undertakings. That cost sits in the salary you are offered, whether or not anyone points it out.

Corporate tax, since 2025

Bermuda enacted a 15% corporate income tax effective for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025, its implementation of the OECD global minimum.

It applies only to Bermuda entities in multinational groups with annual revenue of 750 million euros or more. Everyone below that threshold remains outside it, which is why our page shows a range of 0 to 15%.

This is the same move the Bahamas made, and it is worth understanding as a pattern: the zero-tax jurisdictions did not abandon zero, they carved out the multinationals to keep the rest of the system intact.

The cost of living, which is not a footnote

Bermuda is routinely among the most expensive places on earth to live. Twenty-one square miles in the middle of the Atlantic, importing essentially everything, with customs duty on top.

Groceries, fuel, electricity, healthcare and rent all sit far above North American levels. Housing in particular is scarce and priced accordingly.

A salary that looks spectacular against a European one can convert into a lower standard of living. Anyone considering a Bermuda posting should build the actual budget before comparing the headline number.

Getting there

Bermuda has no investment residency route. You work there because a company sponsors you, typically in insurance and reinsurance, which is what the island genuinely is: one of the world's three major reinsurance centres, alongside London and Zurich.

Work permits are tied to the employer, and the island protects local employment through advertising requirements before a permit is granted. This is not a jurisdiction you move to speculatively.

So, who is Bermuda for?

• A reinsurance or captive-insurance professional: it is the centre of that industry, and the packages reflect it.
• Someone comparing headline rates: read the payroll tax table above before you compare anything.
• A retiree or investor: there is no residency programme to speak of, and the cost of living punishes anyone without an island salary.
• A remote worker: Bermuda ran a well-known remote-work certificate. Check its current terms before planning around it, because programmes of that kind change without much notice.

The full table is on our Bermuda page, and the comparison tool puts it next to anywhere else.

Sources

Figures verified in August 2026 against the Government of Bermuda payroll tax tables for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, the Corporate Income Tax Act 2023 and PwC Tax Summaries. An error reported to us gets fixed.

This page informs, it does not advise. Before deciding anything, talk to a professional who will look at your situation, as our terms of use set out.