Tunisia · Story

Tunisia began taxing wealth in 2026, after parliament first rejected the idea

The 2026 finance law created an annual tax on net wealth, 0.5% from 3 million dinars and 1% above 5 million. Parliament rejected it first in committee and then in a plenary vote, and passed it on 4 December 2025 when the Finance Minister brought it back.

Since 1 January 2026, Tunisia taxes its largest fortunes every year. Anyone whose net wealth reaches 3 million dinars pays 0.5%, and anyone above 5 million dinars pays 1%.^[1] Parliament rejected the article twice before it passed. The Finance Minister did not drop it, and on 4 December 2025 the Assemblée des représentants du peuple adopted it.^[6]^[7]

Why Tunisia needed it

The state has little to spend. The 2026 budget counts on about 47.8 billion dinars of tax revenue, close to 60% of the state's resources.^[17] Much of the economy sits outside the net: the national statistics institute and a Tunisian strategic-studies institute put the informal sector at 35% to 40% of activity.^[17] In 2022 Al Bawsala, the parliamentary watchdog, described the public finances as in an unprecedented crisis.^[10] Its report found that VAT and consumption duty brought in about 40% of tax revenue in the 2022 finance law, taxes that fall on everyone who buys bread or fuel.^[10]

At the top, the wealth is concentrated. The Observatoire tunisien de l'économie says the richest 10% of Tunisians hold 58% of all wealth, the richest 1% hold 24.1%, and the poorer half share 4.9%.^[9] Incomes tell the same story. The top 1% take 10.9% of national income and the top 10% take 41.4%, against 16.6% for the poorer half, according to the World Inequality Database figures Al Bawsala used for 2021.^[10] The same observatory points to a 2024 World Bank finding that, among developing countries, Tunisia has the widest gap between the tax rate on work and the tax rate on capital.^[9]

The Finance Ministry gave its own reason to the parliamentary committees in November 2025: the tax would add to the solidarity effort that pays for the state budget, and it would make taxation fairer between individuals.^[4]

How the tax works

Article 88 of the 2026 finance law replaces a 2023 tax that applied only to real estate worth 3 million dinars or more.^[1]^[2] The new tax reaches movable property as well.^[1] Each year, on 1 January, the state counts what individuals own, including the assets of their minor children.^[1] It taxes holdings worth 3 to 5 million dinars at 0.5% and holdings above 5 million dinars at 1%.^[1]

Residents are taxed on everything they own, in Tunisia or abroad. Non-residents are taxed only on what they own in Tunisia.^[1] Debts tied to the assets are deducted before the value is set.^[1] Four things are exempt: the main residence and its furniture, property and businesses used professionally, cars up to 12 CV, and money held in banks, financial institutions and the post office.^[1] The administration's guidance adds that shares in a company are exempt when the owner and minor children hold at least half of its capital.^[14]

Listed securities are valued at market price. Real estate is valued on the owner's sworn declaration or on the administration's assessment.^[14] Returns are due by the end of June each year and can be filed and paid online.^[14] Control, penalties and appeals follow the general tax procedure code.^[1]

How it passed

The government put the tax in its 2026 finance bill in October 2025, as article 50.^[3] In the lower chamber's finance committee, deputies raised objections. The ministry answered that the tax rests on assets that can be valued, such as income-producing real estate, leaves out many movables, and comes with measures against tax evasion and for bringing the informal sector into the system.^[4]

The second chamber, the Conseil national des régions et des districts, gave a favourable opinion, and its finance committee backed the article with two changes: bank and post-office deposits excluded, and a lower entry point.^[4]^[5]^[6] The lower chamber's finance committee voted the article down. On 1 December the plenary also rejected it.^[5]^[6] That was the setback. The Finance Minister, Michket Salama Khaldi, announced a revised text.^[6] Three days later, on 4 December, the Assemblée adopted the article, and the law was published on 12 December with bank and post-office deposits exempt.^[1]^[7]

Who backs it

The tax had defenders in both chambers. Slim Salem, chair of the second chamber's finance committee, said his committee would keep the article at the plenary, and its vice-chair Osama Sahnoun defended it as well.^[5] Mohamed Ben Hussein, the lower chamber's finance committee rapporteur, said a wealth tax is "not a Tunisian innovation" and is in force in several countries.^[5] Ali Zaghdoud of the bloc Pour que le peuple triomphe went further. He said the bloc never wanted the article deleted, that large fortunes should contribute more, and that it would table higher rates: 0.5% to 1% on 3 to 5 million dinars and 1% to 3% above 5 million.^[8]

Outside parliament, the Observatoire tunisien de l'économie and the Centre Ali Ben Ghedhahem pour la justice fiscale called for the tax to be reinstated and strengthened after the committee vote.^[9] The idea has a longer record. Elyès Jouini argued for a progressive wealth tax in 2014, starting at 1 million dinars.^[11] In 2022 Amine Bouzaïene wrote the Al Bawsala report that called for a tax on large fortunes covering the richest 10%.^[10]

What the opponents said, and the answers

Business groups went first. The employers' confederation UTICA called the tax a real danger to investment and asked for article 50 to be withdrawn. It added that real estate serves as bank collateral for companies.^[13] The law exempts property used professionally and businesses in operation, so the assets that carry a company are outside the tax.^[1] Debts tied to the taxed assets are deducted.^[1]

On capital flight, deputies and UTICA warned the tax would push capital out.^[4]^[13] The law counts a resident's assets abroad as well as at home, so a resident who moves money overseas still declares and pays.^[1] Jouini answered the same objection in 2014: Tunisia's non-convertible dinar makes capital hard to move.^[11] A rich resident who stays and pays nothing helps no one.

On savings, deputies said the tax would weaken the incentive to save.^[4] The law exempts money in banks and at the post office, as the second chamber's committee had asked.^[1]^[4]

On valuation, deputies said the administration cannot value private property and that no feasibility study existed.^[4] The ministry answered that the tax rests on assets that can be valued.^[4] Real estate is valued on declaration or assessment, listed shares at market price, and the administration can adjust values through audits, expert valuation or comparison with similar assets.^[14]^[15]

On splitting assets, the economist Ridha Chkoundali predicted the tax would encourage owners to fragment their property.^[12] The law counts the assets of minor children with their parents, and co-owners must state their exact shares on the return.^[1]^[14]

On other countries, Chkoundali said several countries tried the tax and dropped it.^[12] The ministry told the committees the model is used in many other countries.^[4] Ben Hussein said the same.^[5]

On whether Tunisia has fortunes to tax, a Business News editorial argued that wealth in Tunisia is too fragile to tax.^[18] The data say otherwise. The richest 1% hold close to a quarter of all wealth.^[9] In 2014 Jouini estimated about 13,800 households with more than 1 million dinars and about 59 billion dinars between them.^[11] The tax of 2026 starts at three times that line.^[1]

What comes next

The first returns fell due on 30 June 2026.^[14]^[15] The tax administration issued its guidance in June, and the Direction générale des impôts reminded taxpayers of the deadline.^[2]^[15] The first yield figures are what to watch for.

The work now is the data. A tax adviser quoted in La Presse in August 2026 noted that the administration's property records are scattered, sometimes incomplete and not always centralised, and that taxpayers get no official reference values for what they own.^[16] That is a case for finishing the property register and publishing valuation guides, not for giving up the tax. The administration can already audit and adjust declared values.^[15] The tax has a legal base, the tax procedure code behind it, and a first year of returns. A register that shows the tax office every large estate is the next thing to build.

Timeline

2014 The economist Elyès Jouini calls for a progressive wealth tax in a signed column, starting at 1 million dinars.
2022 In June Al Bawsala publishes a fiscal-justice report by Amine Bouzaïene that calls for a tax on large fortunes covering the richest 10%.
2023 The 2023 finance law taxes real estate worth 3 million dinars or more at 0.5%.
2025 In October the government's 2026 finance bill proposes an annual wealth tax on movable and immovable property.
2025 On 21 November the two finance committees examine the article. The second chamber's committee accepts it, the lower chamber's committee does not.
2025 On 1 December the plenary of the Assemblée des représentants du peuple rejects the article, and the Finance Minister announces a revised text.
2025 On 4 December the Assemblée adopts the wealth tax article.
2025 On 12 December the finance law is published with the tax as article 88.
2026 In June the tax administration issues its explanatory note and the first returns fall due on 30 June.

Sources

The 16 supporters in Tunisia