Tonga Consumption tax registration threshold

What this value means

PERIOD BASIS: twin 12-month tests on the value of taxable supplies of the person's enterprise, and it is an 'OR MORE' test — exactly TOP 100,000 triggers it (unlike the 'exceeds' drafting of most VAT laws). Forward: at the beginning of ANY 12-month period, if reasonable grounds exist to expect TOP 100,000 or more. Backward: at the end of any 12-month OR SHORTER period in which taxable supplies reached TOP 100,000 — the backward window can be shorter than a year, so a fast start crosses immediately. s.6(2): the Minister must have regard to taxable supplies of an ASSOCIATE in applying the test (anti-fragmentation). Application must be lodged in the approved form within 7 DAYS of becoming obliged (s.6(5)); a person who fails to apply is treated as registered from the beginning of the first Consumption Tax period after the obligation arose (s.6(6)). Licensing authorities must register regardless of turnover (s.6(3)); voluntary registration is open to any person making taxable supplies (s.6(4)), but a s.6(4) registrant may only deregister after 2 years (s.8(2)). Deregistration is available when taxable supplies fall below the s.6(1) threshold (s.8(1)(b)). NON-ESTABLISHED SUPPLIERS: no separate regime and no nil-threshold vendor collection. 'Taxable supply' means a supply IN TONGA in connection with carrying on an enterprise, and place of supply (s.10) controls: goods where delivered/made available (or where transportation commences); services at the place of business FROM WHICH they are supplied — so services supplied from an offshore place of business are outside the tax. Exception: s.10(3) deems listed services (IP rights, accountants/architects/consultants/engineers/lawyers, data processing or supplying information, advertising, tolerating a situation, supply of personnel, agents procuring these) to occur in Tonga if the recipient uses or obtains the advantage of them in Tonga — a non-resident supplying those into Tonga is in principle making taxable supplies against the same TOP 100,000 test. In practice the burden shifts to the customer: s.15 reverse-charges a supply of services to a taxable person in Tonga that is not made in Tonga (but would have been taxable if made there) to the extent used for exempt supplies, personal/domestic use, or entertainment; and s.6(2A) (inserted by Act 3 of 2005, in force 18 July 2005) obliges a RECIPIENT of s.15 services to register when the services received plus own taxable supplies reach TOP 100,000 on the same forward/backward tests. Imported goods are taxed at entry as taxable imports (s.5(1)(b)) irrespective of anyone's turnover. IMPORTED DIGITAL SERVICES: no vendor-collection regime — Tonga has NOT enacted a non-resident digital-services registration scheme as of August 2026. Cross-border digital supplies fall only within the s.10(3) deeming (notably 'processing of data or supplying information or any similar service' and advertising) and the s.15/s.6(2A) recipient-side mechanics; there is no mechanism collecting CT on B2C digital supplies to Tongan consumers. Traps: (1) It is an 'or more' threshold: hitting exactly TOP 100,000 obliges registration — carrying over an 'exceeds' reading from other Pacific GST laws is wrong. (2) The backward test runs over '12 month OR LESS' — a new business reaching 100,000 in its first months is caught at once, not at month 12. (3) Associates' taxable supplies are aggregated by s.6(2) — splitting an enterprise does not stay under the line. (4) The application window is 7 days (not 21 or 30), and failure means DEEMED registration with liability from the next CT period. (5) Voluntary registrants are locked in for 2 years (s.8(2)). (6) Two commencement dates exist: the registration Part commenced 4 March 2005 and the charging Parts 1 April 2005 (GS 3A/2005) — the Act bears no date on its face ('a date to be proclaimed'). (7) The recipient-side s.6(2A) means a business making mostly EXEMPT supplies can be forced to register purely by importing services. (8) The threshold has never moved: TOP 100,000 since 2005 through the 2016 Revised Edition, with the 2019 and 2020 amendment Acts only re-pointing administration to the Revenue Services Administration Acts; the Ministry of Revenue & Customs still states TOP 100,000. (9) PacLII's sessional text of the 2003 Act says the Chief Commissioner; the current text reads the Minister/CEO under the revenue-administration renamings — cite the 2016 Revised Edition (Cap. 26.02), not the 2003 print, for current wording.

Get it programmatically

curl https://ausref.dev/v1/to/vat-registration-threshold
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://ausref.dev/v1/to/vat-registration-threshold/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/to/vat-registration-threshold

Other Tonga series: NRBT policy rate (mid-rate of the Interest Rate Corridor) · Consumption Tax (CT) standard rate · National minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Court-rule interest on judgment debts · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Vanuatu · Australia · Fiji · New Zealand · Papua New Guinea · all 8