MAURITIUS BUDGET 19/20 - FISCAL MEASURES

Development of marinas in Mauritius

Newly set-up entities incorporated for the development of marinas in Mauritius will be granted an 8-year income tax holiday.

 

E-commerce Platform

A company incorporated before 30 June 2025 and holding a certificate of e-commerce issued by the Economic Development Board will be eligible to a 5-year tax holiday.

 

Peer-to-Peer Lending

A peer to peer lending operator will be granted a 5 years tax holiday subject the company start its operation before 31 December 2020

 

Ocean Economy and the bunkering sector

A 4-year tax holiday will be granted to companies deriving income from bunkering of low Sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil. The exemption will apply only on the income derived by the Company from its bunkering of low Sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil activities and will not be restricted to newly incorporated entities only.

 

Simplified tax calculation

Certain enterprises having an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 10 million and engaged in specific activities such as manufacturing or trading of goods (“relevant enterprise”), will be given the option to either pay 1% of their turnover as final income tax or compute their tax liabilities based on the existing provisions of the ITA.

 

Deduction relating to cleanliness and embellishment projects

The Government is undertaking a campaign to clean the whole island: hotels will be encouraged to participate in such schemes and would benefit from a 150% deduction on any expenses incurred on the cleaning, renovation and embellishment works in the public realm.

 

Accelerated depreciation

Companies may now claim 100% as capital allowance for plant or machinery acquired for an amount not exceeding Rs 60,000.

 

Deduction for fast-charger for an electric car

A company may claim double deduction in respect of investment made in the acquisition of a fast charger for an electric car. Individuals on-the-hand are eligible to claim 100% of the investment made.

 

B. Personal tax :

 

Income Exemption Threshold (IET)

The existing income exemption threshold are being increased as summarised below:

Category	From (MUR)	To (MUR)
Individual with no dependent	305,000	310,000
Individual with one dependent	415,000	420,000
Individual with two dependents	480,000	500,000
Individual with three dependents	525,000	550,000
Individual with four or more dependents	555,000	600,000
Retired/disabled person with n dependent	355,000	360,000
Retired/disabled person with dependents	465,000	470,000

 

Negative income tax

The Mauritius Revenue Authorities (MRA) requires information from employers to pay household employees the Negative Income Allowance or Special Allowance.

In this regard, household employers would be required to either pay the NPF/NSF contribution on a monthly basis or continue to pay NPF/NSF contribution at the end of the year but submit quarterly statements to the MRA. The submission of the returns as well as the payment should be made electronically.

 

Reduced rate of income tax

The threshold for the reduced income tax rate of 10% applicable if an individual's yearly net income is less than Rs. 650,000 has been increased to Rs. 700,000.

 

Peer to Peer Lending

Individuals receiving interest income from Peer to Peer lending will be subject to income tax at the rate of 3% and will be able to deduct bad debts and fees payable to peer-to-peer operator.

 

Solidarity levy (SL)

Lump Sum

Budget 2017/2018 introduced a SL whereby resident individuals whose aggregate of chargeable income and dividend income exceeds Rs 3.5million are liable to a levy computed at 5% of the excess. Lump sum income received by way of commutation of pension, death gratuity or compensation for death or injury will be excluded from the computation of the solidarity levy.

 

C. VAT

Repayment of input tax on intangible assets

VAT incurred on intangible assets including goodwill on acquisition of a business will be refundable by the MRA.

 

Supply of service to foreign companies

Services supplied by local companies to a foreign company would be considered as standard rated if the foreign company in turn supplies the same service to another local company.

 

Construction of Marina

Marina construction would be considered as an exempt supply.

 

D. Reforms to the Tax Regime of Global Business Companies

(1) Partial exemption regime

(i) Partial exemption regime will be extended to cover companies engaged in:

- leasing and provision of international fibre capacity;

- reinsurance and reinsurance brokering;

- sale, financing arrangement and asset management of aircraft and its spareparts, including aviation related advisory services

(ii)The Income Tax Regulations 1996 will be amended to:

- Define the detailed substance requirements that must be met in order for a taxpayer to enjoy the partial exemption benefit; and

- Lay down the conditions that must be satisfied where a company outsources its Core  Income Generating Activities, namely:

• the company must be able to demonstrate adequate monitoring of the outsourced activities;
• the outsourced activities must be conducted in Mauritius; and
• the economic substance of service providers must not be counted multiple times by multiple  companies when evidencing their own substance in Mauritius.

(2) Anti-abuse Rule

- The Income Tax Act will be amended to set out rules on controlled foreign company (CFC).

 

E. Miscellaneous measures

 -All VAT registered persons will be required to submit their VAT returns electronically and
pay their VAT liability electronically as from 1 March 2020;

 -A VAT invoice issued to a non-VAT registered person in business should include the name,
business address and Business Registration Number of the non-VAT registered person