Trinidad and Tobago Withholding tax rates
Trinidad and Tobago 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 11 Aug 2026.
The withholding tax Trinidad and Tobago imposes under section 50(1) of the Income Tax Act, Chap. 75:01 on distributions and payments to persons not resident and not engaged in trade or business in Trinidad and Tobago - distributions at 8% (3% to a parent company) and 'payments' (interest, royalties, rentals, management charges, fees) at 15% - at the rates set out in the Third Schedule, before any double-tax treaty relief. Administered by the Inland Revenue Division (IRD).
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | Inland Revenue Division - Withholding Tax Guide: 'Under Section 50(1) of the Income Tax Act, Chapter 75:01, Withholding Tax is applied to distributions and payments'; 'The rates of Withholding Tax are set out in the Third Schedule of the Income Tax Act' - distributions 8% (standard) or 3% (parent company); payments 15% |
| Last verified | 2026-08-11 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Trinidad and Tobago's Third Schedule distinguishes a DISTRIBUTION (8%, or 3% to a parent company) from a PAYMENT (15%) - section 51 defines a payment as the gross amount, without any deductions whatsoever, of interest, discounts, annuities or other annual or periodic sums, rentals, royalties, management charges or charges for the provision of personal services and technical and managerial skills, premiums, commissions, fees and licences. Classifying the transaction is the first step; a caller must name the payment type and read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. Trinidad and Tobago's double-tax treaties can reduce them ('If a treaty exists between Trinidad and Tobago and the recipient's country, these rates may be reduced as may be therein provided'); applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup, and since 1 January 2022 the standard rate applies where a treaty rate would be HIGHER. We do NOT serve treaty rates. NO EFFECTIVE DATES ARE SERVED: the IRD guide states the current Third Schedule rates without commencement dates, and we do not supply them from memory. CITATION UPGRADE (11 August 2026) - branch-remittance entry is no longer secondary. The 3% previously rested on PwC and a law-firm note. It is now confirmed twice over from official sources: the IRD's published rate table 'Withholding Tax Rates on Distributions and Payments made to Non-Resident Individuals and Companies (Revised 2024)' carries an express 'Branch Profits - Net of Tax/ and Reinvestment' row showing 3% in the OTHER COUNTRY (no-treaty) column, and s. 50(6)-(7) of the Income Tax Act Chap. 75:01 supplies the deeming rule that makes a branch remittance a distribution and defines the reinvestment carve-out. NOTE FOR MAINTAINERS: the entry-level note on withholding_rates[4] still describes itself as a 'SECONDARY-SOURCED ENTRY' that 'should be re-verified against the Act' - that has now been done and the wording is stale. Separately, be aware that neither reachable consolidation of the Act carries current Third Schedule rates: the Ministry of the Attorney General's Laws of Trinidad and Tobago PDF (rgd.legalaffairs.gov.tt/laws2/Alphabetical_List/lawspdfs/75.01.pdf) is updated only to 31 December 2016 and still prints the pre-2017 rates (distribution 10%, parent 5%, payment 15%), and the IRD's own posted copy of the Act is older still (1995 rates: 15%/10%/20%). The Third Schedule was amended by Act No. 10 of 2016 with effect from 1 January 2017, which is what produced the current 8%/3%/15%. Read rates from the IRD rate table or the Withholding Tax Guide, never from either Act PDF.
Get it programmatically
curl https://latamref.dev/v1/tt/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://latamref.dev/v1/tt/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/tt/withholding-taxOther Trinidad and Tobago series: CBTT Repo Rate (repurchase rate) · Value Added Tax standard rate · VAT registration threshold · National Minimum Wage (hourly) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporation tax standard rate · Statutory interest on judgment debts · Personal income tax rates · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Uruguay · Argentina · Barbados · Belize · Bolivia · all 22