Somalia capital gains tax calculator

Yes, from 11 May 2025. The Income Tax Law (Law No. 37 of 11 May 2025) taxes an individual's gain on the disposal of an investment asset: shares and other shareholdings, and land and buildings. The gain joins your chargeable income for the year. Before 11 May 2025 individuals paid no tax on gains: the 1966 Income Tax Law taxed salaries and rent only.

The gain is added on top of your other income. The part that falls inside the first $18,000 of chargeable income pays the ordinary rates of 0%, 6% and 12%; the part above $18,000 pays 15% instead of the 18% top rate. With a salary of $25,000, a $5,000 gain on shares is all above $18,000 and pays $750.

The first $100,000 of gain on your primary private residence is excluded, and anything above it is taxed like any other gain. A loss on your main home is not deductible. The exclusion is cut day by day for time the property was not your main home, once absences pass 30% of the time you owned it.

The Income Tax Law (Law No. 37 of 11 May 2025) taxes an individual's gain on the disposal of an investment asset from 11 May 2025. Investment assets are immovable assets (land, buildings and private residences) and shareholdings in an entity, listed or unlisted, Somali or foreign. The gain is the proceeds less the cost of the asset at disposal (Ministry of Finance Income Tax Manual, section XIV; ITA 2025 Articles 6 and 39).

The gain joins the year's chargeable income. The part of it inside the first USD 18,000 of chargeable income pays the personal income-tax rates of 0%, 6% and 12%; the part above USD 18,000 pays a flat 15% instead of the 18% top rate. The gain stacks on top of salary and other income (Income Tax Manual section XIV.9 and Examples 3 to 5).

A non-resident individual pays personal income tax at a flat 18% on Somali-source income, so the whole of a non-resident's gain on a Somali investment asset sits in the top band and pays the 15% gain rate (Income Tax Manual section X.2 and section XIV.9).

On an individual's primary private residence the first USD 100,000 of gain is excluded and the remainder is taxed as investment income; a loss on the main home is not deductible. The USD 100,000 shrinks day by day for any day the property was not the main home, and absences of no more than 30% of the ownership period do not count against it (Income Tax Regulation of 2025, Regulation 6-1).

A loss is the amount by which the cost exceeds the proceeds. Losses on investment assets net against the year's gains on investment assets, and the unused part carries forward against later gains on investment assets (Income Tax Regulation of 2025: Regulation 6-1(3) makes a residence loss 'proportionately deductible under Article 24(4) of the Law'; Regulation 84-1 speaks of the 'unrelieved loss for the year referred to in Article 23(4) of the Law'; the transitional Regulation 105-4 lets losses carried forward under the 1966 law continue to be used 'under Article 23 of the Income Tax Law'. The Law's own text was not retrievable in English.)

Crypto, bonds, gold, vehicles and personal goods are not investment assets under the Law, so a private disposal of them carries no tax on the gain.

The year of assessment is the calendar year. The annual income tax return and any balance of tax are due by 31 March of the following year, after quarterly instalments on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December (Income Tax Manual section II).

Amounts in the Income Tax Law and on every Revenue Directorate return are in US dollars.