Haiti: service-payment withholding and annual payee reporting

Scope and source status

Article 540 starts the replacement Code on 1 October 2026 and leaves implementation arrangements to ministerial decisions. This Guide records articles 95–97 as enacted, not a retrospective instruction for earlier payments. The DGI's replacement-code page identifies the decree. Current forms, transition instructions and any specific implementing instruments still require confirmation. 2026 Code, article 540

Before calculating, obtain the contract, service or right supplied, payer and recipient tax residence, payment date, remuneration amount, beneficiary tax identifier, and evidence of whether a resident provider is taxed on financial statements. Separate salary, dividend, interest and rent classifications from service remuneration. This Guide does not supply all withholding rates merely because those payments appear in an annual reporting list.

Resident providers: test the exclusion first

Article 96(1) imposes 10% withholding on service-contract remuneration paid by the State, legal persons or businesses to third parties established in Haiti, other than enterprises taxed on the basis of financial statements. Do not withhold solely because an invoice describes a service; document whether the provider falls in the express exclusion. Nor does exclusion from this particular rule establish exemption from the provider's own income tax or every other withholding rule. 2026 Code, article 96

Article 96(2) raises this withholding to 20% for remuneration from licences to exploit patents, assignment or licensing of trademarks, processes or manufacturing formulas. Classify the actual right; do not treat every software or digital-service purchase as one of those rights. Confirm the scope conditions of article 96 before applying the higher rate. 2026 Code, article 96

Article 96(4) says the withholding referred to in paragraph 1 is creditable against the provider's global-income tax. Paragraph 5 preserves that withholding even when the provider is exempt from noncommercial-profits income tax; where it cannot be credited against that tax, it is final. Do not infer that any claimed BNC exemption allows the payer to omit withholding. These paragraphs expressly refer to paragraph 1, so this Guide does not separately certify the ultimate treatment of every paragraph-2 intellectual-property payment. 2026 Code, article 96

Overseas services: enacted provision and unresolved reference

Article 97(1) states a 20% final income-tax withholding on consideration for services paid by a Haitian tax-resident natural or legal person to a recipient whose tax residence is outside Haiti. Article 142 applies articles 95–97 to companies subject to corporate income tax. 2026 Code, article 97 2026 Code, article 142

Unresolved source issue: article 97(1) describes services by reference to article 175(3). The scanned enactment confirms that reference. Article 175(2) defines services generally, whereas 175(3) assimilates self-supplies to supplies. This Guide does not silently substitute paragraph 2 or conclude that the mismatch makes ordinary overseas services exempt. Obtain an authoritative correction or interpretation before using this provision to settle disputed transaction scope. No treaty inventory, treaty rate or automatic relief procedure has been verified here. 2026 Code, article 175

The existence of a 20% printed rate is established; its application to a particular disputed service is not resolved by this Guide. Payroll, investment income and other separately classified payments must not be swept into a universal overseas-payment rate.

Monthly remittance and annual reporting

Under articles 96(3) and 97(2), remit the relevant withholding to the tax administration between the 1st and 15th of the month following payment. Retain payment-date evidence, beneficiary details, calculation and remittance receipt. These provisions do not establish a verified current electronic form or submission route. 2026 Code, article 96 2026 Code, article 97

Article 95 separately requires every enterprise or nonprofit organisation to report, 1–31 October each year, the preceding fiscal year's specified payments. The list covers interest, rent, fees, arrears, directors' remuneration/attendance fees, commissions, brokerage, salaries, bonuses, premiums, indemnities, per diems, fixed allowances, dividends, transfers from enterprise assets to shareholders/partners/others, and service remuneration. On the same form report the withholding collected and identify each beneficiary by name and tax identification. Annual reporting is broader than the resident service-withholding rule. 2026 Code, article 95

Do not claim that the October 2026 transition return has been operationally verified. The year, prior-law reporting and new-code instructions need reconciliation before that filing. Article 76(7) also requires the article 95 recapitulatory declaration with annual financial statements; do not assume one filing automatically replaces the other. 2026 Code, article 76

Article 75(p) excludes from deductible business expenses a charge on which Code-required withholding was not collected and paid within the legal deadlines. Article 137(2) includes article 75 in the company taxable-profit rules. Preserve withholding evidence in the profit-tax file as well as the payment ledger; this Guide does not establish that a late payment automatically restores deductibility. 2026 Code, article 75 2026 Code, article 137

Computation and checks

1. Classify the payment and establish residence and the payer's scope.
2. For a resident provider, establish the financial-statements exclusion before selecting the ordinary or specified-right rate.
3. Establish the remuneration subject to withholding separately from TCA or reimbursed costs. This Guide does not resolve whether separately charged TCA or a particular reimbursement enters that base.
4. Apply the confirmed rate to that established base, retain the withheld amount and reconcile gross remuneration to net payment plus withholding.
5. Remit in the following-month window and include the payment in the applicable annual beneficiary schedule.

Conditional resident-service example: assume HTG 100,000 is the established remuneration subject to article 96(1), the payer and provider satisfy its conditions, and the financial-statements exclusion does not apply. Withholding is HTG 10,000 and the remaining remuneration is HTG 90,000. The example assumes no tax-inclusive-base dispute or other deduction. 2026 Code, article 96

Specified-right arithmetic: on an established HTG 100,000 base within article 96(2), 20% is HTG 20,000, leaving HTG 80,000. This is conditional arithmetic, not a classification of all licence contracts. 2026 Code, article 96

Credit illustration: if the ordinary resident-service withholding of HTG 10,000 is creditable under article 96(4) and the provider's independently computed global-income tax is HTG 25,000, the remaining amount is HTG 15,000 before other credits/payments. Do not use this credit illustration for the final-tax exception in article 96(5). 2026 Code, article 96

Check that evidence supports residence, provider tax regime, payment category, base and payment date. Do not infer withholding liability from annual-report inclusion, or a treaty exemption from foreign residence alone.

Disclaimer and remaining work

Source-cited research draft, not independent professional attestation or a complete withholding pack. Resolve the overseas-service cross-reference, applicable implementation and transition instructions, current forms, treaty questions and disputed bases before giving transaction-specific filing advice.

Contributed by Ryan Duguid.