Mauritius issues Detailed QDMTT Regulations

Mauritius enacted a statutory QDMT tax in August 2025, but the detailed computational rules were nor provided.  On 8 August 2026, Government Notice No. 135 of 2026 was gazetted which provides for those detailed QDMTT provisions.

Mauritius now has both the primary legislation and the detailed regulations needed to operate a domestic minimum top-up tax. The statutory regime was inserted into the Income Tax Act 1995 by the Finance Act 2025. The Income Tax (Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax) Regulations 2026 were made on 28 July 2026, published in the Government Gazette on 8 August 2026 and are deemed to have been in operation from 1 July 2025.

Background

The Finance Act 2025, assented to on 8 August 2025 and gazetted on 9 August 2025, inserted a new Sub-Part AF (sections 50P to 50Z) into Part IV of the Income Tax Act 1995. Those provisions established the charge, the EUR 750 million scope threshold, the 15% minimum rate, the broad computation architecture and the principal compliance obligations. 

The primary legislation left central components to regulations. Section 50S required financial accounting net income or loss to be adjusted ‘as prescribed’; section 50T contemplated prescribed adjustments to covered taxes; and section 50U defined the substance-based income exclusion by reference to an amount to be prescribed. In practical terms, a taxpayer could identify the charge and its broad framework but could not complete a QDMTT computation without the secondary legislation.

On 24 April 2026, the MRA extended filing and payment deadlines that fell between 1 April and 29 June 2026 to 30 June 2026. On 13 July 2026, it stated expressly that the regulations had yet to be promulgated and granted a further transitional extension for deadlines already due or falling shortly after promulgation. 

Legislative architecture and interpretive status

Mauritius has adopted a two-layer structure. The Act contains the charging and administrative provisions; the 29 regulations supply the operative GloBE detail. They deal with excluded entities, GloBE income and loss, permanent establishments and flow-through entities, multi-parented groups, elections, adjusted covered taxes, deferred tax, the substance-based income exclusion, international shipping, the de minimis exclusion, investment entities, reorganisations, minority-owned constituent entities, joint ventures, location rules, the Transitional CbCR Safe Harbour, transition attributes and the GloBE loss election. 

OECD guidance is relevant

Regulation 2(2) provides that, in applying the regulations, consideration shall be given to OECD guidance, in particular defined ‘OECD Pillar Two guidance’. The definition enumerates the December 2022 safe-harbour document; Administrative Guidance issued between February 2023 and January 2025; the January 2025 GloBE Information Return materials; the May 2025 Consolidated Commentary; and the January 2026 Side-by-Side package. Later guidance is included only if specified by amendments to the regulations. 

Scope: groups, covered persons and exclusions

Section 50Q applies the regime to members of an MNE group whose UPE consolidated financial statements show annual revenue of at least EUR 750 million in at least two of the four fiscal years immediately preceding the tested fiscal year. The statute contains proportionate threshold rules for fiscal years shorter or longer than 12 months and specific merger and demerger rules.

The Act uses the term ‘covered person’. Broadly, this captures an in-scope group member located in Mauritius and, in stated circumstances, a Mauritius-incorporated UPE. The definitions and regulation 25 include location rules for ordinary entities, permanent establishments, flow-through entities and dual-resident entities. MRA administrative guidance is framed principally around resident companies, but the legal analysis should also test Mauritius PEs and other entities brought within the statutory definitions. 

Excluded persons

The Act excludes the standard Model Rules categories, including governmental entities, international organisations, non-profit organisations, pension funds, qualifying investment funds, insurance investment entities and real estate investment vehicles. Regulation 3 extends exclusion treatment to certain 95%-owned holding or ancillary entities and certain 85%-owned entities whose income is substantially composed of excluded dividends or excluded equity gains or losses. A five-year election may be made not to treat such an entity as excluded.

For investment funds and real estate investment vehicles, exclusion is available only where the entity is the UPE of the MNE group. That condition is particularly important in Mauritius fund structures: an entity’s regulatory or commercial description as a fund is not enough; the ownership chain, consolidation position and UPE status must be tested under the statutory definitions.

The core QDMT tax computation