Haiti: company tax, accounts and advance payments

Scope and commencement

The replacement Code begins on 1 October 2026. Article 540 also provides for ministerial implementation decisions. This Guide describes the enacted company-tax framework; it does not retrospectively recalculate the year ending September 2026 or certify the first transition filing. Current forms and implementation decisions remain to be retrieved. 2026 Tax Code, articles 540, page 169

Obtain the entity's legal form, effective-management location, Haitian operations, fiscal-year dates, turnover, financial statements, tax reconciliation, previous assessments and advance-payment receipts. This is a source-cited draft, with independent source review and accountant attestation pending.

Classify the entity before applying a rate

Article 134 covers sociétés anonymes (including mixed and foreign companies), sociétés en commandite par actions, mixed-economy companies, commercial/industrial/financial public enterprises and autonomous bodies, and other profit-making legal persons except partnerships. Legally operating agricultural cooperatives and agricultural credit funds are exempt under article 135. Do not infer an exemption for every cooperative. 2026 Tax Code, articles 134–135, page 45

Article 136 taxes profits realised in Haiti under article 60 by the relevant resident legal persons or their Haitian permanent establishments. Residence follows effective management, meaning the place of the key management and commercial decisions necessary for the business as a whole. Registration or a mailing address alone does not settle that test. Permanent-establishment and profit-attribution analysis under article 60 is outside this calculation Guide. 2026 Tax Code, articles 136, page 46

Tax base and rate

Article 137 uses taxable actual profit determined from financial statements under articles 70–75 and 110, regardless of turnover. The ordinary rate is 30%. Taxable savings-and-credit cooperatives instead use 10%. Article 137(4) exempts income used to constitute the legal reserve required by company legislation; it does not exempt an arbitrary management-designated reserve. Verify that legislation and the qualifying amount before claiming it. 2026 Tax Code, articles 137, page 46

Use a completed tax reconciliation as the input. Do not multiply turnover or unadjusted book profit by the rate. Detailed deductions, depreciation, loss utilisation, incentives, distributions and any special-sector levies remain outside this Guide.

Article 69 sets the ordinary fiscal year at 1 October–30 September and allows a first year of different length, capped at 18 months. It also contains alignment rules for pre-existing nonstandard accounting years. Article 76(2)(b) permits specified foreign-company establishments/subsidiaries and agricultural businesses to choose a financial period. Reconcile those provisions for the particular entity before assigning a nonstandard-year deadline. 2026 Tax Code, articles 69, page 24 2026 Tax Code, articles 76, page 28

Annual accounts and payment

Article 139 requires the corporate return and financial statements under article 76. Company tax is paid when the statements are filed. The individual final return mentioned in article 76(9) is expressly excluded for companies; the other article 76 provisions apply. File with the office/direction designated under article 138, including the relevant specialised taxpayer directorate when assigned. 2026 Tax Code, articles 138–139, page 46

For the ordinary fiscal-year cycle, article 76 provides:

• Prior-year statements before 31 December in the current fiscal year. Preserve the statute's “before” wording rather than silently treating 31 December as an inclusive deadline.
• Statements requiring audit can be submitted through 31 January. The enacted audit threshold is annual turnover at least HTG 40 million, subject to amendment by ministerial order. The audit report must be from a qualifying firm or independent professional accountant belonging to the Haitian professional order.
• Material inability to submit on time permits a single written request for 30 additional days; the extension is granted as of right even without an administration reply. Retain evidence of the request and reason, rather than assuming an automatic extension without requesting it.
• Statements signed by the legal representative and an approved professional accountant belonging to the Haitian professional order: balance sheet, income statement, cash-flow statement, notes and annexes, including fixed assets, depreciation, provisions and external-portfolio accounts.
• Statements expressed in Haitian gourdes, showing the conversion rate where relevant, in French or Creole; accompanied by the article 95 recapitulatory declaration.

These are the enacted rules, not confirmation that no subsequent order or deadline notice exists. 2026 Tax Code, articles 76, page 28

Provisional payments and worked calculations

Article 140 imports article 81's provisional-payment rule. The combined advance is 60% of the tax established on actual profit for the year before last, divided into two equal instalments, payable 1–15 October and 1–15 December of each fiscal year. Each instalment is therefore 30% of that historical tax, not 30% of current turnover or of the immediately preceding year's profit. Gaming operators have a separate advance regime referenced in article 140(2), excluded here. 2026 Tax Code, articles 81, page 30 2026 Tax Code, articles 140, page 46

1. Identify the applicable fiscal year and the tax assessment for the year before last. Do not substitute another year simply because its accounts are available.
2. Multiply that historical tax by 0.60, then divide by two for each instalment.
3. Calculate annual company tax as the already reconciled taxable profit multiplied by the applicable rate.
4. Deduct substantiated advances from that annual tax. Under article 141, an excess is credited against subsequent advances; this provision does not establish an immediate cash refund. 2026 Tax Code, articles 141, page 46

Illustration, ordinary company: reconciled taxable profit HTG 2,000,000 gives HTG 600,000 tax at 30%. If the relevant historical tax is HTG 500,000, the combined advance is HTG 300,000, paid as HTG 150,000 twice. Assuming both payments qualify and no other credits, the remaining tax is HTG 300,000.

Excess advance: if annual tax is HTG 200,000 against those HTG 300,000 advances, the HTG 100,000 excess goes against subsequent advances under article 141. A taxable savings-and-credit cooperative with the same HTG 2,000,000 taxable profit produces HTG 200,000 tax at 10%; first establish that it is taxable rather than exempt under article 135. These examples apply articles 137, 140–141 and 81, not a separate concession.

Self-checks and unresolved cases

Confirm entity classification, effective management, profit attribution, reconciled profit, fiscal year, applicable rate, exact historical advance base, receipts and audit threshold. HTG 40 million is included in the statutory audit threshold. The two instalments together must equal 60%, not 120%, of the historical tax.

Do not invent a first-business-year advance where the historical base is absent. Transition implementation, amended audit thresholds, nonstandard-year filing dates, gaming, exemption conditions and the full profit reconciliation need separate verification. This Guide does not determine payroll, patente, indirect taxes or total business liability.

Disclaimer

General research reference, not a filing-ready opinion or professional attestation. Apply the enacted scope and obtain the outstanding implementation evidence before using it for a particular return.

Contributed by Ryan Duguid.