El Salvador Withholding tax rates
El Salvador Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The definitive withholding taxes El Salvador levies on payments to non-domiciled persons (sujetos no domiciliados) - a general 20% under Articulo 158 of the Codigo Tributario with scheduled reduced rates, a 5% withholding on profit distributions under the Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta, and a punitive 25% for payments to low- or no-tax jurisdictions under Articulo 158-A. Administered by the Ministerio de Hacienda (DGII).
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2011-12-15 |
| Official source | Codigo Tributario de El Salvador, Art. 158: 'las personas... que paguen o acrediten a un sujeto o entidad no domiciliado en la Republica, sumas provenientes de cualquier clase de renta obtenida en el pais... estan obligadas a retenerle por concepto de Impuesto sobre la Renta como pago definitivo el veinte por ciento (20%) de dichas sumas'; Art. 158-A (25% paraisos fiscales); Ley de Impuesto sobre la Renta Art. 72 (5% utilidades) |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | secondary — Corroborated, but the primary instrument was NOT read (usually the publishing host blocks automated access). The Art. 158 operative wording was verified verbatim, but from a Salvadoran tax-information mirror (contaportable.com) rather than an official Diario Oficial or Asamblea Legislativa copy (the SSF-hosted LISR PDF returned 404 at confirmation). The 5% dividend withholding (LISR Art. 72) and the 25% tax-haven rate (CT Art. 158-A) rest on the statute as summarised by Consortium Legal (El Salvador, Oct 2022, consortiumlegal.com/2022/10/03/el-salvador-retenciones-aplicables-a-entidades-no-domiciliadas/) and were not quoted verbatim from the official text. Rates are stable and consistently reported across sources; the article-number attributions should be re-verified against an official consolidated Codigo Tributario before being treated as primary. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. El Salvador applies a general 20% definitive withholding to any Salvadoran-source payment to a non-domiciled person, with scheduled carve-outs at 3%, 5% and 10% and a separate 5% on profit distributions; a caller must name which payment type and read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. El Salvador has only one comprehensive income-tax treaty (Spain); where it applies it can reduce these rates, and applying it is a legal determination rather than a lookup. We do NOT serve treaty rates. TAX-HAVEN OVERRIDE: under Art. 158-A Codigo Tributario, payments to persons or entities constituted, domiciled or resident in low- or no-tax jurisdictions or tax havens (as listed in the DGII's annual guide) are withheld at 25% as pago definitivo instead of the rates below, subject to statutory exceptions (e.g. acquisitions of tangible goods). The general 20% and the current carve-out structure of Art. 158 date from the December 2009 tax reform (D.L. 233-2009) with adjustments through 2011; the 5% profit-distribution withholding was introduced by D.L. 957-2011 effective from the 2012 tax year. Series effective_from is asserted only loosely (2011-12-15, the D.L. 957 Gaceta period); per-entry dates are omitted where the consulted texts state none.
Get it programmatically
curl https://latamref.dev/v1/sv/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://latamref.dev/v1/sv/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/sv/withholding-taxOther El Salvador series: Central bank policy rate · VAT (IVA) standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (lowest general statutory floor) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax (ISR) standard rate · Statutory legal interest (interés legal) · Personal income tax (ISR) brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Guatemala · Guyana · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · all 22