6 questions about income tax revenues

Contrary to popular belief and especially to bad habits used in the past, you have to pay income tax in Saint-Martin. As you may have been living there for less than five years, more than five, as you may earn your income from somewhere else than Saint-Martin; depending on the circumstances, the process of filing your tax return may not be the same.

How many people file their income tax return?

As of December 31 2004, the Collectivité recorded 17,004 tax households including 15,513 households with their tax domicile registered in St. Martin. 1491 households are considered "non-residents" from a legal point of view, these are mainly households registered after 2010 coming from the main land or another oversea department. 12,276 minors and 1793 adult children were registered as dependent to these households. 60% of households file as single (10,222), 23% married, 13% divorced, 3% widowed and 1% PACS.

How many households are taxable?

Very few households are taxed in St. Martin. Only a quarter of households are taxable, i.e. 4254. The amount of tax so assessed totals € 9.4 million. Taxable households are fewer still when considering tax residents, in fact only two out of ten (3280) pay taxes but they contribute up to more than 76% of collected revenues (€ 7. 2 million). As for non-residents, two thirds of them are taxable, i.e. 974 households, and account for €.2.2 M.

How many households are not taxable?

Overall, three quarters of the households in Saint Martin are non-taxable, i.e 12,750 households out of a total of 17,004 households. 8 out of 10 tax residents do not pay taxes; conversely nontaxable non-residents only represent about one third in this category (517).

What is the average taxable income?

The residents’ average taxable income is € 12,185 in 2015 against € 11,823 in 2013. Six out of ten resident households have a net taxable income of less than € 9,900 per year. 1551 households (10%) have taxable income exceeds € 30,338 per year. In terms of non-resident households, 60% of them have taxable income of less than € 25,910 per year. 10% of non-residents (or 149 households) have taxable income exceeds € 53,539 per year.

What is the average amount of tax due?

Half the taxable resident households pay less than € 1,000 in taxes, including 57% of them paying less than € 500 in taxes.

628 households pay between € 1000 and € 1500 in taxes and 591 households pay between € 1500 and € 3000 in taxes. Two resident households pay more than € 100,000 in taxes. As for non-residents, half of them pay taxes less than € 1,300 in taxes. Overall, 45% of the total amount of income tax is based on 300 tax households.

How much income tax revenue does the Collectivité collects?

In 2015, the Collectivité has collected nearly € 11.6 million in tax income. A record. This indeed represents a 45% increase compared to 2014. This performance is mainly explained by the fact that € 3.4 million in unpaid taxes could be raised through audits from State Services.

These proceeds represent 13% of the Collectivité’s tax revenues in 2015.

(Source: Taxation Services of the Collectivité of St. Martin, figures based on 2015 income tax statements).