What the Eighth Amendment Sets
The Maldives has legislated a 17 per cent tourism goods and services tax on travel agents, tour operators, online booking platforms, bed banks, wholesalers, destination management companies and charter operators with no fixed place of business in the country. The provision sits in the eighth amendment to the Goods and Services Tax Act. President Dr Mohamed Muizzu ratified the amendment on 31 August 2026. Collection began on 1 October.
The Basis of the Charge
The amendment moves the Maldives from the origin principle to the destination principle. A supply is treated as made in the Maldives where the recipient is not registered for GST locally and the service is an inbound tourism product, or agency or booking services attached to one. Inbound tourism product covers accommodation, meals, transport and other tourist activity.
For a non-resident supplier the taxable value is the margin: what the traveller pays, less what is payable to the Maldivian supplier. No input tax deduction applies.
A principal buys rooms at net rates, sets its own price and carries the risk. It pays the tax on the markup. An agent that discloses it is arranging a booking between the resort and the guest pays on its commission.
Registration Carries No Threshold
A separate section of the amended law requires anyone supplying such goods or services to register with the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority. No turnover threshold applies. The MVR1 million threshold for ordinary businesses does not reach this supply.
The Maldives Independent reported that a small specialist agency selling a handful of honeymoons faces the same registration and filing burden as a global booking platform. Returns are filed monthly or quarterly, according to volume, and payments are made in United States dollars.
The Revenue the Government Projects
The government has projected MVR1.6 billion, or US$103.7 million, a year from foreign tour operators and agents. The Maldives Independent reported that neither the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority nor the finance ministry answered questions about the methodology behind the figure.
The Maldives Independent reported that MIRA had collected US$519 million in tourism goods and services tax receipts in the year to August, nearly a third of all revenue.
The Transition Rule
The law required MIRA to enact revised GST regulations within 30 days of ratification. MIRA gazetted the 32nd amendment to the GST Regulation on 21 September 2026.
Section 99(e) exempts a booking where a tax invoice, invoice or receipt is issued before 1 October 2026, or where full or partial payment is made before that date. Packages sold before 1 October for stays after it fall outside the tax.
ECTAA, the European Travel Agents' and Tour Operators' Associations, said the exemption leaves unresolved the position of packages priced and marketed before the rules were announced and paid for after 1 October.
What the Trade Asked For
ABTA wrote to tourism minister Mohamed Ameen on 27 August, before ratification, and asked the government to pause implementation and consult. The association represents around 3,500 UK travel brands with combined turnover above £41 billion.
ECTAA wrote to the Maldives ambassador in Brussels and to the tourism and finance ministries. It asked for transitional arrangements, clarity on thresholds and margin calculation, and registration procedures designed for non-resident businesses. Germany's DRV called the timetable rushed. Associations in Italy, Spain and Switzerland raised similar concerns.
The Commission Point
MIRA's guidance states that an operator cannot deduct agency or booking commission when it computes the consideration for the tax. The Russian Union of Travel Industry wrote to the Maldives ambassador on 23 September and then to tourism minister Mohamed Ameen. It called the mechanism legally and practically unworkable for Russian companies.
The Reported Delay
Tourism and civil aviation minister Mohamed Ameen said on 3 October that implementation would move to 1 April 2027. ABTA welcomed the reports and is seeking formal confirmation of the postponement and clarification on how the tax applies to agents. edition.mv reported that the President intends to bring further amendments to the TGST law.
What Remains Unresolved
The Maldives Independent reported that the regulation left open the treatment of a booking whose final cost to the resort is unknown when the traveller pays, the apportionment of packages that mix Maldives and non-Maldives components, and the treatment of cancellations, refunds and adjustments.