Crypto Taxation in Bahamas

Does the Bahamas tax individual cryptocurrency gains?

No. The Bahamas imposes no personal income tax, no capital gains tax, and no wealth tax on individuals. The Department of Inland Revenue confirms that government revenue comes primarily from Value Added Tax (VAT), import duties, business licence fees, and real property tax -- not from taxing personal income or investment gains. Because there is no capital gains regime, a Bahamian tax resident who buys and later sells Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other digital asset owes no Bahamian tax on any profit from that sale. The same applies to staking rewards, airdrops, and mining proceeds received by individuals: none of these trigger a personal tax liability under Bahamian law (Department of Inland Revenue, inlandrevenue.finance.gov.bs).

What does the DARE Act 2024 require for crypto businesses?

The Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act 2024 (DARE Act 2024), enacted by Parliament on 29 July 2024, is the primary regulatory framework for digital-asset businesses operating in or from the Bahamas. It replaces and substantially expands the original DARE Act 2020. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) administers the law.

Any company incorporated under the Bahamian Companies Act that provides digital-asset services must register with the SCB. Regulated activities include: digital-asset exchanges, custody services, staking platforms, broker-dealers, digital-asset issuers, wallet providers, and advisory or management services. Key provisions include:

• Mining restriction: digital-asset mining is permitted only when ancillary to a registered digital-asset business or for proprietary use -- not as a standalone commercial activity.
• Privacy tokens: issuers may not offer privacy tokens for sale in or from the Bahamas.
• Algorithmic stablecoins: expressly prohibited.
• Staking disclosure: the first Bahamian legislation to establish a disclosure regime for client-asset staking and staking-pool management.
• AML/CFT: registered businesses are classified as financial institutions under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2018 and must implement customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, and suspicious-transaction reporting.

Registration fees under the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (Fees) Rules 2024 are BSD 6,250 (application) and BSD 18,750 (registration) for exchanges; BSD 3,750 and BSD 12,500 respectively for other digital-asset businesses. Annual renewal mirrors the registration fee. Senior officers (CEO, Compliance Officer, MLRO) each pay BSD 575 to register and BSD 800 annually (Securities Commission of the Bahamas, scb.gov.bs/dare).

What taxes apply to crypto businesses in the Bahamas?

Businesses -- including digital-asset businesses -- are subject to Business Licence Tax administered by the Department of Inland Revenue. The rate is 2.5 percent of gross turnover generated from Bahamian domestic operations, with a minimum of BSD 2,500 annually. Turnover from operations outside the domestic market is assessed at the greater of BSD 2,500 or 0.25 percent of that turnover, subject to a BSD 100,000 cap (Business Licence Act 2023).

VAT applies at the standard rate of 10 percent to taxable supplies of goods and services in the Bahamas. The sale or exchange of cryptocurrency itself is generally not treated as a taxable supply -- the Bahamas treats crypto as a form of payment rather than a good or service. However, fee-bearing services provided by a digital-asset business (brokerage fees, custody fees, advisory fees) are subject to VAT if the business meets the VAT registration threshold. Businesses must register for VAT once their annual taxable turnover exceeds the prescribed threshold (Department of Inland Revenue, inlandrevenue.finance.gov.bs).

There is no corporate income tax in the Bahamas, so a registered digital-asset company pays Business Licence Tax and VAT on services but owes nothing on net profits.

How does the CARF commitment affect Bahamian crypto holders?

The Bahamas signed the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CARF-MCAA) on 19 November 2024. Under this commitment, Bahamian-licensed crypto-asset service providers will be required to collect and report user transaction data to the Bahamas Department of Inland Revenue beginning with the 2026 reporting year. The Bahamas is among the jurisdictions targeting first exchanges with partner jurisdictions by 2027-2028 (OECD, oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange).

For Bahamian residents holding accounts on foreign exchanges, the existing Common Reporting Standard (CRS) framework already requires those foreign platforms to report account information to their home regulators, who share it with the Bahamas. The CARF layer extends equivalent transparency to crypto-specific transactions. While this does not create a new tax liability -- the Bahamas still imposes no income or gains tax -- it significantly reduces informational opacity for any jurisdiction that does tax crypto and has a TIEA or CRS/CARF exchange relationship with the Bahamas.

For a broader view of Bahamian taxes including property, stamp duty, and VAT thresholds, see the Bahamas country overview. Non-Bahamian residents who also hold tax obligations in another jurisdiction -- such as US citizens, who are taxed on worldwide income regardless of residence -- should consult a qualified cross-border tax professional, as Bahamian tax law does not override home-country obligations. Review vetted international tax practitioners at TaxPros Rated who understand multi-jurisdictional crypto reporting. The information above summarises publicly available rules as of June 2026 and does not constitute professional tax counsel; consult a qualified practitioner for advice specific to your circumstances.