Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice, 2025

The rate of interest on unpaid income tax is reset. For any month or part of a month that tax remains unpaid, the rate under sections 71 and 73 of the Income Tax Act is the bank policy rate as revised from time to time plus five per cent for amounts in local currency, and ten per cent for amounts in foreign currency. The local-currency charge now floats with the Reserve Bank's policy rate instead of sitting at a fixed number.

The notice also runs in the taxpayer's favour. The Commissioner-General must pay interest at those same rates on any income tax refund due under section 48 that has not been paid within sixty days after the date your return was received.

There is one proviso. If the refund was held up because you filed an incomplete or defective return, and the Commissioner brought that to your attention within the sixty days, the sixty-day period starts again from the date you resubmit a correct or complete return.

Two earlier notices are repealed: the Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice, 2019 (SI 282 of 2019) and the Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice, 2022 (SI 212 of 2022). No commencement date is stated; the notice was gazetted in an Extraordinary Gazette dated 19 March 2025.