Windhoek

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed18%–37% progressive on taxable income above N$100,000

Under section 15(1)(e) of the Income Tax Act, any service rendered or work done in the carrying on in Namibia of any trade is deemed to be from a Namibian source, whoever pays and wherever payment is made. The Act's definition of "trade" includes employment and professions. A salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients for work you physically do in Namibia are therefore Namibian income from your first day, whether or not you are resident. NamRA describes the system as resting on a "source principle and deemed source principle". The first N$100,000 of taxable income is tax-free, and rates then rise from 18% to 37% (Schedule 4). No Namibian payer withholds tax, so you register with NamRA and file a return yourself. The tax year runs from 1 March to 28 February; returns are due by 30 June for salaried individuals and by 30 September for business individuals. Anyone with income other than remuneration, such as a freelancer, is a provisional taxpayer and pays in advance during the year (Schedule 2). Treaty relief is limited because Namibia has few tax treaties. Under the treaty with South Africa, a salary stays taxable only in South Africa if you are in Namibia no more than 183 days in any 12-month period and your employer is not Namibian (Article 15). Freelance income is taxable only in South Africa unless you have a fixed base in Namibia, and staying more than 183 days counts as having one (Article 14). Check your own country's treaty if it has one. NamRA has published no guidance aimed at digital nomads, and how it enforces the rule against short-stay remote workers is not known. Namibian social security was not checked for foreign employers or the self-employed.

On the nomad visa

The Digital Nomad Visa, launched in 2022, gives one six-month stay to people who work for employers or clients outside Namibia and earn at least US$2,000 a month. It has no tax rule of its own and no exemption. Under the deemed-source rule, pay for work you do while in Namibia is Namibian income, taxable at 18% to 37% above N$100,000, even though the visa requires your clients to be abroad. A six-month stay can exceed 183 days, which matters for treaty relief such as South Africa's 183-day test. Holders are unlikely to be ordinarily resident, so foreign interest and dividends stay outside Namibian tax. NamRA has issued no guidance on nomads.

Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

Not taxed

Rent from property abroad, foreign capital gains and foreign pensions are not Namibian-source, and no deeming rule reaches them. Gains are in any case excluded from gross income as receipts of a capital nature, unless you are trading. A foreign pension is deemed Namibian only if it was earned by working in Namibia for at least two of the ten years before it started, and then only in proportion (section 15(1)(i)). Foreign dividends of someone ordinarily resident are deemed Namibian-source, but section 16(1)(n) exempts all dividends received by any taxpayer, so neither foreign nor Namibian dividends are taxed. Interest is the catch. Once you are ordinarily resident, interest on any deposit, loan or security is deemed Namibian-source wherever it is held (section 15(2)). It is exempt only if the deposit or investment was made and kept outside Namibia and the full capital came from outside Namibia, or if it was held for a business abroad and taxed there (section 16(1)(r)). Savings you bring with you and keep abroad stay untaxed. Interest on money earned in Namibia and invested abroad, including pay for remote work done there, can be taxed at the normal rates. Interest from Namibian banks and registered unit trusts bears a 10% final withholding tax (section 34A). The Act has no specific rule for crypto-assets, so this profile does not say how they are treated.

Net wealth and inheritance

No wealth taxNo inheritance tax

Namibia has no net wealth tax, estate duty or donations tax. None appears among the laws NamRA administers: income tax, VAT, transfer duty, stamp duties, customs and excise, export levy and petroleum taxation. An inheritance is a receipt of a capital nature, so it falls outside income tax. Buying property costs transfer duty. Individuals pay progressive rates with a nil band on lower values, while companies and other non-natural persons pay 12%. Stamp duty is also charged. The copy of the Transfer Duty Act on NamRA's site predates later amendments, so the current bands for individuals are not given here. Municipal property rates were not checked.

Tax resident after

home or ties test

Top income tax rate

37%

When you become tax resident

There is no day-count residency test, because tax depends on where income comes from, not on where you live. Residence matters only through the idea of being "ordinarily resident" in Namibia. The Income Tax Act uses that term but does not define it, so it turns on the facts of where you normally live and return to. It decides whether foreign interest and dividends count as Namibian-source (section 15(2) and the dividends paragraph of the "gross income" definition in section 1). It also decides whether Namibian dividends paid to you bear 20% non-resident shareholders' tax (sections 42 and 43). Someone on the six-month, non-renewable digital nomad visa is unlikely to be ordinarily resident. Someone who moves on a long-term permit and makes Namibia their home probably is.

Top income tax rate

Windhoek, like the rest of Namibia, has no regional or municipal income tax, so the national rate is the top rate everywhere. It is 37% on taxable income above N$1,550,000 (N$429,000 plus 37% of the excess) under Schedule 4 of the Income Tax Act, as amended by Act 4 of 2024. Bracket changes were announced for 2026/27 but could not be checked against an official source, because the Finance Ministry's site (mof.gov.na) could not be loaded; NamRA still showed the table above.