Technical article

When You Become a Tax Resident: Mauritius and Seychelles

A person who is in Mauritius for 183 days or more in the income year counts as resident.

By Neil Solomon · 4 min read

Picture a couple named Ed and Joan. Both are 64. Ed gets a pension from an American employer, and Joan has a small annuity. They are thinking about an island. They ask: when does the island's tax office start to care about us, and does it care about a pension that was earned somewhere else?

I read the tax authority pages for both countries. The answers are partly clear and partly open.

What the pages say

Mauritius

The Revenue Authority page on foreign income gives the residence test in two parts. The first is domicile. The second is days. A person who is in Mauritius for 183 days or more in the income year counts as resident. So does a person who is there 270 days or more across the two preceding income years. I am giving the 270-day test as the page summary returned it. The Income Tax Act has the exact wording in section 73, and the copy I opened was cut off before that section.

The same page says foreign income is taxable for a resident, and that a resident is taxed on income derived in Mauritius or "remitted to Mauritius." Foreign income includes pay, business income, rent, interest and investment income. It also lists "annuity, and pension in respect of past services."

So the page ties a foreign pension to the word remitted. The Act, consolidated up to May 2026, has a section on when foreign income is treated as derived in Mauritius: when it is received in Mauritius, or dealt with there (section 5(3)). It also has a schedule of exempt income (section 7(2) points to the Second Schedule). Whether a foreign pension is in that schedule is not shown in the sources. I will not guess.

Non-residents, the page says, "will not be entitled to Reliefs, Deductions & Allowances." Rates are not on the page.

Seychelles

The Seychelles Revenue Commission describes its history in the past tense. The tax system page says the country "operated a territorial tax regime, meaning that only income sourced in Seychelles was liable to tax." It then describes changes from 16 September 2021 for certain companies. The home page repeats that "historically, the country operated a territorial tax regime."

That is a statement about the past. The pages I read do not say whether the regime still covers a retiree's pension. They do not define a resident or mention pensions. Business tax bands are listed, but not personal ones for retirees.

So the idea that a foreign pension is not taxed in Seychelles is not stated on an official page. I can say only that the authority describes a territorial system and uses the past tense.

What is left open

• Mauritius: whether a foreign pension is exempt, and the exact text of sections 73 and 74A.
• Seychelles: who counts as resident, how a foreign pension is treated, and personal rates.
• Neither page shows a date. Both show a 2026 footer.

An accountant or lawyer who works with Americans abroad could confirm how a US pension would be treated, and whether a treaty applies.