Tax
VAT at ten per cent, with no corporate or personal income tax
Bahrain has no general corporate income tax and no personal income tax. VAT was introduced in 2019 and doubled to ten per cent in 2022.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National Bureau for Revenue. Objections go to the NBR then to the courts.
- Deadline — Monthly or quarterly VAT returns depending on turnover
- Deadline — Last day of the month following the tax period to file and pay VAT
Governing law
- VAT Law, Decree-Law 48 of 2018 — rate raised to 10% in January 2022
- Decree-Law 22 of 1979 — income tax on oil and gas companies only
- Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax, Decree-Law 11 of 2024
In practice
Only oil and gas companies pay income tax, at forty-six per cent, so the general absence of corporate tax is real rather than a nominal-rate artefact. The doubling of VAT from five to ten per cent in 2022 makes dated advice unreliable on rate, the same trap as Saudi Arabia's 2020 increase. The domestic minimum top-up tax enacted in 2024 implements the OECD fifteen per cent floor for large multinational groups from 2025, which is the first corporate income tax of general application in Bahrain's history and is easily missed because it sits outside the main tax statutes.