Vanuatu VAT rate
Value Added Tax standard rate, imposed under the Value Added Tax Act [CAP 247] (originally VAT Act No. 12 of 1998) as administered by the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue (DCIR), with administration provisions in the Tax Administration Act No. 37 of 2018. A credit-offset VAT modelled on the New Zealand GST, applied to most supplies of goods and services made in Vanuatu by registered persons and to most imports.
| Current value | 15 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2018-01-01 |
| Official source | Department of Customs and Inland Revenue — 'Introduction to VAT in Vanuatu': 'VAT is an indirect consumption tax imposed at the rate of 15% on most goods and services supplied in Vanuatu by registered persons in the course of a taxable activity... In 2018, this rate was increased to 15%.' Commencement date confirmed by DCIR notice 'Value Added Tax (VAT) — CHANGE OF VAT RATE TO 15 PER CENT (15%)': 'The Vanuatu Parliament have passed a Bill to increase the VAT rate from 12.5% to 15% with the commencement date of 1st January 2018.' |
| Last verified | 2026-07-23 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
15% since 1 January 2018, raised from the 12.5% rate that had applied since VAT was introduced in 1998 under the Comprehensive Reform Program. NO change since — checked against the DCIR VAT pages and the DCIR VAT rate-change notice at confirmation. There is only ONE positive rate: 15%. The second rate in the system is 0% (zero-rating), not a reduced rate. ZERO-RATED: exported goods; goods not situated in Vanuatu at the time of supply; taxable activities sold as going concerns to registered persons; international transport of passengers and goods; services supplied to non-residents outside Vanuatu; services physically performed outside Vanuatu; supplies to approved educational institutions; supplies to aid donors for approved aid projects. EXEMPT (no VAT charged, no input credit): financial services, education by an approved educational institution, donated goods and services sold by non-profits, residential rental accommodation, and the sale of a property used for residential rental accommodation for at least 5 years. REGISTRATION THRESHOLD: VT 4,000,000 of taxable supplies in any 12-month period (mandatory above; voluntary below). Normal taxable period is 1 month, filing and payment by the 27th of the following month; below VT 8 million a year a person may apply to file quarterly. Activities of international companies and employment are not 'taxable activities'. TRAP: Vanuatu's VAT is NOT an income tax and does not make Vanuatu a taxing jurisdiction for income — see the corporate-tax and income-tax series. Also do not confuse VAT with Rent Tax at 12.5% on gross long-term residential rental income under the Rent Tax Act [CAP 196], which applies precisely where VAT does not. ACCESS: customsinlandrevenue.gov.vu serves an incomplete TLS certificate chain (same failure mode as rbv.gov.vu); /index.php/taxes-and-licensing/taxes (the parent path) throws a Joomla 500/404 with a full PHP stack trace — link only to the leaf pages. DCIR does not publish a consolidated text of the VAT Act [CAP 247] on its own site.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1998-08-01 | 12.5 | Department of Customs and Inland Revenue — 'Introduction to |
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/vu/vat
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/vu/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/vu/vatOther Vanuatu series: policy interest rate · minimum wage · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates