Madagascar expat tax 2026: the new 25% band

Madagascar taxes salaries on a monthly scale that, from 2026, reaches 25%. Freelancers and small businesses with turnover under Ar 400 million a year pay a flat 5% of turnover instead of income tax. Once you're resident, your income from anywhere is in scope, and spending 183 days there in any 12 months is enough to make you resident.

This guide covers Malagasy personal tax for the 2026 tax year, which runs with the calendar year from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Amounts are in Malagasy ariary (Ar, MGA). We convert at about Ar 4,570 to US$1, October 2026.

The key question is simple. Are you paid a salary, or do you invoice for your work? Salaries go through IRSA, a monthly tax with a new 25% band. Freelance fees under Ar 400 million a year go through the 5% impôt synthétique. Investment income has its own flat 20% tax.

What's changed: the 2026 Finance Law added a 25% IRSA band on monthly pay above Ar 4 million; until 2025 the top rate was 20%. It also made dividends paid to residents taxable under the tax on investment income, which until 2025 left them untaxed: the rate is 20% after a 50% allowance, so 10% in effect. And it lets businesses with turnover between Ar 200 million and Ar 400 million opt for income tax instead of the impôt synthétique. The minimum wage (SME) rose to Ar 300,000 a month from 1 March 2026, which lifted the ceiling for social contributions to Ar 2.4 million a month.

👉 National Assembly: presentation of the 2026 Finance Bill, including the 25% IRSA rate (in French)

📋 Madagascar tax at a glance for 2026

Salary or freelance: the 25% band and the 5% flat tax

How you're paid makes a big difference to your bill in Madagascar.

Image 1 — small freelancers pay 5% of turnover while salaries now reach 25%

Salaries. IRSA (impôt sur les revenus salariaux et assimilés) is worked out on each month's pay, so the bands are monthly. Since 1 January 2026, pay above Ar 4 million a month (about US$875) is taxed at 25%. On a senior salary, most of your pay sits in that band, so the effective rate is close to 25%. Your employer withholds it, and that withholding settles your tax on the salary.

Freelancers and small businesses. If you work for yourself and your turnover is under Ar 400 million a year (about US$87,500), you pay the impôt synthétique: 5% of your turnover, which replaces both income tax and VAT. The list of people covered includes service providers of every kind and the liberal professions, and the code doesn't exclude foreigners. Some new taxpayers pay 3% for their first years. The tax can't fall below minimum amounts set by regulation.

• Over the limit: with turnover of Ar 400 million or more, you pay income tax (impôt sur les revenus, IR) at 20% of your profit and register for VAT. A minimum tax of Ar 1 million plus 1% of turnover applies even in a loss year.

• Option: from 2026 you can choose income tax instead of the impôt synthétique once your turnover reaches Ar 200 million.

• Turnover, not profit: the 5% is charged on what you bill, with a small reduction for documented purchases and salaries. If your costs are high, compare it with 20% of profit.

👉 DGI: Code des impôts following the 2026 Finance Law, articles 01.01.02, 01.01.14, 01.02.02, 01.02.05 and 01.03.16 (in French)

When you become tax resident in Madagascar, and how you stop

Madagascar taxes its tax residents on their income from any source. Under article 01.01.05 of the tax code, you're tax resident if any one of these applies:

• your main place of stay is in Madagascar for a total of 183 days in a period of 12 months

• your main professional activity is carried on in Madagascar

• the centre of your economic interests is in Madagascar

The 183 days are counted over any 12 months, not just the calendar year, so a stay that straddles two years can still make you resident. Taking up your main job in Madagascar makes you resident on its own. If you're also resident somewhere else, a treaty tie-breaker may decide, but Madagascar has only four treaties.

When you leave for good, you file a provisional return of your income at least 30 days before your expected departure date. It covers income up to the day you leave, and you can add to it until the end of February of the next year. There's no exit tax. Non-residents are taxed only on income from Madagascar.

👉 DGI: Code des impôts, articles 01.01.04, 01.01.05, 01.01.25 and 01.03.04 on residence and departure (in French)

Income tax rates for 2026

IRSA applies to salaries, bonuses, benefits in kind, annuities and supplementary pensions. The scale is applied to each month's taxable pay.

Madagascar IRSA salary tax rates for 2026 (monthly)

Source: Code des impôts following the 2026 Finance Law, article 01.03.16. The minimum tax is Ar 3,000 a month.

Deductions. Your own pension contributions are deductible up to 10% of gross pay, and contributions to a company health service up to 2%. If you earn more than Ar 350,000 a month, you get Ar 2,000 a month off the tax for each dependent child or parent with no income of their own.

Benefits in kind. A company car counts at 15% of what your employer spends on it each month, housing at 50% of the rent (capped at 25% of your cash pay), and a phone at 15% of the costs.

Worked example

• You're single, resident in Madagascar and work for a Malagasy employer for all of 2026, earning Ar 457 million (about US$100k at Ar 4,570 to the dollar), or Ar 38,083,333 a month.

• Your CNaPS and health service contributions come to Ar 48,000 a month, because both stop at the Ar 2.4 million ceiling. After deducting them, your taxable pay is Ar 38,035,300 a month (rounded down to the nearest Ar 100).

• IRSA is Ar 707,500 on the first Ar 4 million plus 25% of the rest, Ar 8,508,825: a total of Ar 9,216,325 a month, or Ar 110,595,900 a year.

Your all-in bill is about Ar 111.2 million, or 24.3% of your salary (24.2% for IRSA alone). Your employer pays its own, larger share of contributions on top.

Working remotely for a foreign employer? IRSA still applies if you're resident in Madagascar. If your employer is outside the country, you work out the tax yourself, or through an accredited representative in Madagascar, and pay it each month by the 15th of the following month, with a payslip as proof.

👉 DGI: Code des procédures fiscales, articles I-20 to I-25 on IRSA withholding and self-payment (in French)

Freelancing in Madagascar

Most freelancers start on the impôt synthétique, worked out on the turnover of the previous year. On US$100k of fees, though, you'd be at Ar 457 million, just above the Ar 400 million limit, so you'd pay income tax at 20% of your profit. On US$100k of profit, that's Ar 91.4 million, or 20%.

• Under Ar 400 million: 5% of turnover, declared and paid by 31 March of the following year, with instalments based on last year's tax due by 31 March and 30 June.

• Income tax: the return and payment for a calendar-year business are due by 15 May, with instalments every two months.

• Social security: the CNaPS scheme is built around employers and their salaried workers, and the self-employed aren't yet covered by social security, so there's nothing to add for contributions.

• Your visa: working for yourself in Madagascar needs the right long-stay visa, usually as an investor. A visitor can't work.

👉 DGI: 2026 tax calendar (in French)

Crypto, investments and pensions

Is crypto taxed in Madagascar? There's no specific answer. The tax code doesn't mention crypto-assets and the DGI hasn't published guidance. The tax on investment income (impôt sur les revenus des capitaux mobiliers, IRCM) covers gains individuals make on selling movable assets, at 20%, and that wording could reach crypto. Keep records and treat 20% as the likely worst case.

• Dividends: IRCM at 20% after a 50% allowance, so 10% in effect. Until 2025 dividends paid to residents were untaxed, so both the tax and the allowance are new for 2026. The code applies them to dividends received by resident or non-resident shareholders, without limiting it to Malagasy companies.

• Interest: 20%, including interest from companies based outside Madagascar and income from bank investments.

• Gains on shares: 20% under IRCM.

• Paying IRCM: the code has the payer withhold the tax and pay it by the 15th of the following month. It doesn't say how you pay on income from abroad, so ask your tax office.

• Property gains: 20% of a gain that's fixed by law at 25% of the sale price, so 5% of the price in effect, paid when the sale is registered.

• Pensions: annuities and supplementary pensions are taxed under IRSA, but civil and military retirement pensions based on years of service are exempt. The code doesn't say how a foreign pension fits, so a private or workplace pension from abroad may be taxed on the monthly scale.

• Inheritance and gifts: inheritance duty is a fixed Ar 10,000 per heir between spouses and in the direct line, Ar 20,000 for siblings, nephews and nieces, and Ar 40,000 for others, and collection of the duty is currently suspended. Gifts are taxed at 5%, but only Ar 40,000 per child or grandchild.

We found no wealth tax in the tax code.

👉 DGI: Code des impôts, articles 01.03.02, 01.03.03, 01.04.02 to 01.04.04, 01.05.04, 01.05.07 and 02.03.25 (in French)

Social security

Employees in the private sector are covered by the national social security fund (CNaPS) for pensions, family benefits and work accidents, and by a company health service (SMIE, such as OSTIE in Antananarivo). The CNaPS code applies to every worker whatever their nationality, so a foreign employee of a Malagasy employer is covered too.

• Ceiling: contributions are charged on pay up to eight times the minimum wage. From 1 March 2026 that's Ar 2,400,000 a month (minimum wage Ar 300,000).

• CNaPS: most of the cost falls on the employer, at 13%; your share is 1%, up to the same ceiling.

• Health service (OSTIE): 1% from you and 5% from your employer, up to the same ceiling.

• Supplementary pension: where an employer and its staff join the CNaPS supplementary scheme, it costs 4.5%: 1% from you and 3.5% from your employer.

The CNaPS pension starts at 60, with at least 15 years of membership. Madagascar has social security conventions with France and Mauritius.

👉 CNaPS: minimum wage history and the Ar 2.4 million contribution ceiling (in French)

👉 OSTIE: contribution rates for member employers (in French)

👉 CNaPS: retirement pensions and the supplementary scheme (in French)

👉 CLEISS (French social security liaison body): Madagascar contribution rates, 13% and 1% for CNaPS (in French)

Double tax treaties

Does Madagascar have double tax treaties? Yes, but only four. The DGI's 2026 edition of the tax code annexes conventions with France, Mauritius, Canada and Morocco, plus the multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters. There's no treaty with the UK or the United States, so a British or American resident relies on the home country's foreign tax credit rules. The Canada treaty has been in force since 3 June 2020 and the Morocco treaty since the exchange of ratifications on 14 November 2022.

👉 Department of Finance Canada: entry into force of the Canada-Madagascar tax convention

👉 DGI: tax codes and manuals, including the 2026 Code des impôts with its treaty annexes (in French)

Staying long term in Madagascar

Madagascar has no digital nomad visa. British citizens can visit for up to 15 days without a visa, or buy a 30-day or 60-day tourist visa on arrival, and extend to a total of 90 days. Visitors can't take paid work or run a business, and a visitor visa can't be turned into a long-stay one.

To stay longer, you apply before you travel for a one-month "transformable" visa, then convert it into a long-stay visa within a month of arriving, at the Ministry of the Interior or the EDBM one-stop shop. The categories include investors, employees, retirees, students and family members. Retirees need a pension of at least €500 a month paid into a Malagasy bank account. There's no category for remote workers.

👉 Embassy of Madagascar in France: short-stay and long-stay visa categories (in French)

👉 Embassy of Madagascar in France: retiree long-stay visa checklist, €500 a month (in French)

👉 UK government: Madagascar entry requirements, the 15-day visa-free stay and visas on arrival

Who is Madagascar good for?

How does Madagascar compare for different kinds of mover? Ratings are relative to the 150+ countries TaxPilot covers, based on 2026 rules and the all-in cost including compulsory contributions. We convert at about Ar 4,570 to US$1: the central bank (Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara) gave a mid rate of Ar 4,570.77 on 19 October 2026.

☑️ Who is Madagascar good for? Tax ratings for expats in 2026

👉 Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara: daily exchange rates against the ariary (in French)

Filing and deadlines

The tax year is the calendar year. Most taxes are paid monthly or the following spring.

• Salary only: your employer withholds IRSA each month and that settles your tax, so there's no annual return. If you have two or more employers, you declare your pay from each before 15 January.

• Monthly, by the 15th: IRSA you pay yourself on pay from a foreign employer, and IRCM on investment income.

• 31 March: impôt synthétique return and payment for the previous year, plus the first instalment for the current year (the second is due by 30 June).

• 15 May: income tax (IR) return and payment for a business with a calendar-year accounting period.

• Leaving: a provisional return at least 30 days before your departure.

Frequently asked questions

When do I become tax resident in Madagascar?

You're tax resident if your main place of stay is in Madagascar for a total of 183 days in any 12 months, if your main professional activity is there, or if the centre of your economic interests is there. Any one of the three is enough.

Does Madagascar tax foreign income?

Yes. Tax residents are taxed on income from any source, including salary for work done abroad and foreign investment income. Non-residents are taxed only on income from Madagascar.

What are the IRSA rates in Madagascar for 2026?

IRSA is worked out monthly: 0% up to Ar 350,000, then 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%, with a new 25% rate on pay above Ar 4 million a month. The minimum is Ar 3,000 a month.

How are freelancers taxed in Madagascar?

With turnover under Ar 400 million a year, you pay the impôt synthétique at 5% of turnover, which replaces income tax and VAT. Above that, you pay income tax at 20% of your profit and register for VAT.

Is crypto taxed in Madagascar?

There are no crypto-specific rules and no DGI guidance. Gains could fall under the 20% tax on investment income, which covers gains individuals make on selling movable assets, so keep full records.

Does Madagascar have a tax treaty with the UK?

No. The DGI's 2026 tax code annexes treaties with only four countries: France, Mauritius, Canada and Morocco. There's no treaty with the UK or the United States.

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