Tax Overview in Sierra Leone

General reference only. This skill is general tax/accounting reference material for AI-assisted workflows. It has not been reviewed for any specific person's facts, documents, elections, deadlines, residency, filing status, or local procedures. Do not rely on it to file, pay, amend, or take a tax position without review by a qualified professional in the relevant jurisdiction.

Who this applies to

Use this intake map for a person, employer, company or overseas business with a Sierra Leone connection. It chooses the correct workpaper and evidence requirements; it does not repeat a headline rate as if it settles a filing. 2026 is the research intake year, not approval of every operative tax provision. The six underlying tax Guides retain their exact accepted source-review receipts and explicit unresolved conditions.

First identify individual/company residence, source and classification, including temporary residence. The opened Income Tax Act baseline distinguishes ordinary residents, temporarily resident individuals and non-residents; effective management/control and majority operations are alternative company-residence grounds alongside incorporation. Calling everything “worldwide resident taxation” loses those conditions. The consolidation is expressly unofficial and stops at 2017. Use cross-border before calculating income. Income Tax Act ss.10-16, 2017 baseline.

Rates, bands and thresholds

Question	Single figure home	What must still be checked
Individual income and employer PAYE	Income tax	Annual versus monthly method, benefits and 2018 market-value interaction, actual employer form, period and amendment chain
Company income, MAT and payment-specific withholding	Corporate income tax	Tax base, regime, recipient/payment, current schedule interaction, instalments and filing
GST registration, taxable/exempt/zero-rated supply and input credits	GST	Registration category, tax point, documentary conditions, actual schedule conflict, return versus payment and current forms
NASSIT employer/employee contributions	Payroll and social	Covered employment, basic-wage base, registration, separate employer liability and remittance conditions
Associated transactions and related-party submissions	Transfer pricing	Method/transaction, preparation versus submission, actual notice, formats and preserved textual conflicts
Residence, foreign income, branch and foreign-tax relief	Cross-border	Actual residence facts, receipt-specific source/credit, treaty text and operative period

These are links to the preserved source-bound rules, not claims of full coverage. Their original laws and exact read scopes sit in each Guide's Sources and figure ledger. Do not copy a payroll date into GST or a general company rate into a special regime.

The base

The National Revenue Authority continues under the NRA Act 2022, with revenue-law administration and collection functions; that Act repeals the 2002 Act subject to saved instruments. Company registration has a different authority and legal question, dealt with in formation. NRA Act ss.2,15,42.

Record the unit on every source and ledger. The Bank's 11 August 2021 notice is prospective and gives one New Leone for 1,000 Old Leones; it does not prove the currency became legal tender during 2021. Convert source amounts explicitly, never read an old-Leone figure as new currency or redenominate a later statute a second time. Actual legal introduction/withdrawal dates and transaction exchange rates are not established by this notice. Bank notice, denomination table and paragraphs 1,3.

The opened income-tax baseline uses an ordinary twelve-month assessment year ending 31 December, but permits a different twelve-month period by written Commissioner permission; transitional periods need a separate check. Obtain the actual permission and relevant accounting period rather than assuming every entity files for a calendar year. Income Tax Act ss.45-47.

Build separate reconciliations for income receipts, allowable costs, employee basic wages/benefits, GST supplies/inputs, associated transactions and foreign-source receipts. Use the six figure homes above with the taxpayer's documents. Source review closes identified source checks; it does not remove each Guide's stated currentness and procedure holds.

Deadlines and filing

Start a separate obligation calendar for each tax and legal filing. The company Guide owns the annual-return/instalment baseline; income tax owns actual PAYE timing and statement conditions; payroll owns NASSIT; GST distinguishes its return deadline from payment; TP distinguishes preparation, annual declarations, written-request responses and submissions. Company-law annual returns are a different job in formation.

The RAA 2017 s.21 baseline requires a person deriving potentially primary-tax-liable Sierra Leone income to apply for a TIN within 15 days of the relevant activity/action, without replacing GST registration or requiring an existing holder to apply twice. Do not wait mechanically for incorporation before considering that trigger. The live method and complete amendment chain are held. RAA s.21.

Retain authentic returns, supporting schedules, acknowledgements, assessments, payment evidence and notices for the actual period. A downloaded law, drafted Guide or successful local arithmetic check is not proof that a return was filed or paid.

Penalties and interest

Open the correct Guide for the actual default, taxpayer classification and legal period. Monthly return penalties, annual returns, TP notices, company-law defaults and unpaid tax do not share one universal penalty. Do not add competing historical charges automatically; GST penalty priority and current interest implementation remain explicit holds in their figure homes. No current payable penalty or interest rate is independently established by this overview.

Cross-border points

Overseas ownership alone does not decide residence, source, tax PE, company registration or treaty relief. The cross-border Guide maps the opened residence/source/foreign-credit baseline and treaty-priority rule; the company Guide owns withholding categories; TP owns associated transactions. Read the actual treaty/protocol and its effective period before claiming relief. Income Tax Act ss.10-16,89-94, 2017 baseline.

The formation Guide separately records a company-law reform conflict: NIB advertises a 2026 Act, but the actual payload is a bill with Gazette-appointed commencement unproved. Neither its advertised simplified procedures nor the older company-law framework is certified here as the complete current law. NIB candidate cover/body s.749; NIB registration page.

Two worked examples that recompute

An old-source figure of Old Leones 12,000,000 converts, using the Bank's stated denomination relationship, to New Leones 12,000. A separate modern-source figure already expressed as New Leones 12,000 stays 12,000. Dividing it again would give 12 and understate it by 11,988. This is a unit-control case, not an entitlement to a particular deduction or threshold.

name: Record the source currency and avoid double redenomination
inputs:
  old_source_amount: 12000000
  old_per_new: 1000
  modern_new_amount: 12000
steps:
  - converted_old_source: old_source_amount / old_per_new
  - incorrect_double_conversion: modern_new_amount / old_per_new
  - understatement: modern_new_amount - incorrect_double_conversion
expected:
  converted_old_source: 12000
  incorrect_double_conversion: 12
  understatement: 11988

A second intake case is purely a fictional cash-to-profit reconciliation, with no tax deduction or rate implied: sales receipts 100,000, operating cash costs 40,000 and owner capital 20,000 enter a bank account. Closing cash increase is 80,000; trading cash surplus before any tax adjustments is 60,000. Treating owner capital as sales would overstate that preliminary surplus by 20,000. The corporate Guide must still classify accruals, capital items, statutory inclusions and deductions before any tax computation.

name: Separate owner funding from the preliminary trading reconciliation
inputs:
  sales_receipts: 100000
  operating_cash_costs: 40000
  owner_capital: 20000
steps:
  - cash_increase: sales_receipts + owner_capital - operating_cash_costs
  - preliminary_trading_surplus: sales_receipts - operating_cash_costs
  - wrong_surplus: cash_increase
  - overstatement: wrong_surplus - preliminary_trading_surplus
expected:
  cash_increase: 80000
  preliminary_trading_surplus: 60000
  overstatement: 20000

Ask the client first

Confirm person/entity, activity, ownership/control and relevant countries; residence calendar and income sources; actual year/permission; source currency and amounts; workers and benefits; taxable/exempt/digital supplies; related-party transactions; foreign assessments and credits; existing registrations, submitted returns, notices and payment evidence. Ask about the specific facts that determine the relevant Guide and obligation.

Sources

Actual source/read scope	URL	Read on
NRA Act 2022: actual ss.2,15,42 and neighbouring scope/savings	https://webtestcms.nra.gov.sl/uploads/THE_NATIONAL_REVENUE_AUTHORITY_ACT_2022_73b1f19cd7.pdf	2026-11-01
Income Tax Act: unofficial2017 cover; selected ss.10-16,45-47. Cross-border ss.89-94 remain in their preserved owning Guide, not reread as a new closure here	https://webtestcms.nra.gov.sl/uploads/Income_Tax_Act_2000_as_amended_to_Finance_Act_2017_1_83760e046c.pdf	2026-11-01
RAA 2017: actual ss.21-24, TIN baseline and neighbouring use/change conditions	https://webtestcms.nra.gov.sl/uploads/Revenue_Administration_Act_2017_a505c603d7.pdf	2026-11-01
Bank notice: complete one-page prospective wording and denomination table	https://bsl.gov.sl/Public%20Notice%20on%20Redenomination.pdf	2026-11-01
Company reform: actual bill cover visually checked and body s.749; current NIB registration context	https://nib.gov.sl/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/COMPANIES-002.pdf and https://nib.gov.sl/business-registration-2/	2026-11-01

The six figure homes are linked to their current sibling paths. Their historical source-review identities and conditions remain in the preserved ledger and review receipts; a routing link does not extend that acceptance to later changes. No underlying Guide or prior review receipt is rewritten by this overview.

Not yet confirmed: Every domain remains partial, including full operative amendment continuity, actual current forms and portals, unresolved income-benefit and GST schedule/penalty interactions, TP instruments/formats, NASSIT implementation and treaty relief. Mining, petroleum, customs/excise, property/local taxes, investment exemptions and specialist reporting are not made complete by this intake map. The old approximate corporate-return date and combined PAYE/NASSIT remittance line are replaced by separate figure-home routing. Source-bound draft; independent conditional source corrections closed; no accountant attestation.