Working from Seychelles as a Belgium resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Seychelles

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Seychelles, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueCrypto tax and legal status

   Seychelles' zero crypto tax only protects someone actually resident here, a Seychelles IBC is a wrapper, not a shield

   Seychelles' zero crypto tax is real only for someone actually and exclusively tax resident in Seychelles. For anyone still resident in one of the sixteen requested roster countries, four separate factors close the gap: there is no double tax agreement with twelve of the sixteen, so no treaty tie-breaker and no mutual agreement procedure exists to resolve a dispute. The home country's controlled foreign company rules will typically attribute an IBC's passive income back to the shareholder anyway. The home country's place-of-effective-management test will typically treat the IBC as resident there instead of in Seychelles. And Common Reporting Standard exchange has applied since 2017, meaning the home tax authority is likely already aware of the Seychelles account.

2. Significant issueMoving your company

   The real risk to a Seychelles IBC is not Seychelles law, it is your home country's effective-management test

   Seychelles' own source rule taxes where activities are conducted, not where a board sits, so a founder living in Seychelles running an IBC does not automatically create a Seychelles tax charge on foreign-source profit. The danger runs the other way: a founder's home country or new country of residence will usually apply a place-of-effective-management or central-management-and-control test, and a Seychelles IBC still managed day to day from Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid or Sydney is at serious risk of being treated as tax resident there, on worldwide profit, at that country's corporate rate, plus CFC exposure. Seychelles has no tax treaty with twelve of the sixteen requested roster countries, so there is no tie-breaker and no mutual agreement procedure to fall back on for most nationalities.

3. Significant issueRight to work

   Seychelles bars all work on a visitor permit, paid or unpaid, remote included

   ICS states in terms that all expatriate workers in Seychelles require a Gainful Occupation Permit, and that non-Seychellois are not permitted to work full time or part time, paid or unpaid, without one. The words or unpaid matter: the rule is about the act of working in Seychelles, not about who pays you or where the money comes from. With the Workcation permit unverifiable, there is currently no lawful status that authorises remote work for a foreign employer while on a visitor permit.

4. Needs checkingPersonal income tax

   A non-citizen employee in Seychelles pays 15 percent from the first rupee, with no tax-free band a citizen gets

   Seychelles employment tax is a three-band progressive scale, 15, 20 and 30 percent on monthly emoluments, not a flat 15 percent as many secondary guides claim. The only genuinely flat feature is that non-citizens get no tax-free band: the SCR 8,555.50 zero-rate band up to that monthly amount is reserved for Seychellois citizens. A non-citizen pays 15 percent from the first rupee, then SCR 1,500 plus 20 percent of the excess over SCR 10,000 up to SCR 83,333, then SCR 16,166.60 plus 30 percent above that. A citizen on the identical salary always pays less. Special rates exist for specific project workers at 3 percent and stevedores at 10 percent flat.

5. Needs checkingPermanent establishment risk

   Seychelles' permanent establishment threshold is 90 days, tighter than the OECD's 183

   The Business Tax Act's modern PE definition, in force since 15 September 2021, catches a fixed place of business, a construction site or project continuing more than ninety days, services including consultancy provided through employees or personnel for periods aggregating more than ninety days in any 12-month period, or a dependent agent who habitually concludes contracts or plays the principal role leading to their conclusion. Ninety days, not 183. A foreign employer with someone servicing clients from Seychelles for more than three months in a year is inside a services-PE definition materially tighter than the OECD default.

6. Needs checkingResidency routes

   The Residence Permit buys five years of Seychelles residence for just five days of presence a year

   SCR 150,000 for the main applicant, plus SCR 75,000 for a spouse and SCR 25,000 per child, buys a five-year Residence Permit requiring only a minimum SCR 20,000 bank guarantee and evidence of means, no gainful occupation right, and the sole ongoing obligation is to reside in Seychelles at least five days in each twelve-month period. There is no free healthcare and no social security attached. Eligibility runs on family or domestic connections to Seychelles, or a special contribution to Seychelles' economic, social or cultural development, both discretionary tests with no published rubric on how discretion is actually exercised.

What tends to surprise people here

• Seychelles bars all work on a visitor permit, paid or unpaid, remote included
• No Seychelles VASP is actually licensed yet, only eight are in assessment
• An IBC cannot do virtual asset business, mining or mixing

Tax treaty between Belgium and Seychelles