Sri Lanka income tax rates
Statutory marginal rate schedule applied to the taxable income of a resident or non-resident individual, paragraph 1(1D) of the First Schedule to the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017. Amounts are per year of assessment (1 April to 31 March) and apply to taxable income AFTER the personal relief is deducted.
| Current value | 5 entries — see the API for the full schedule |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2025-04-01 |
| Official source | Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act, No. 2 of 2025 (certified 20 March 2025; Gazette supplement of 21 March 2025), section 3(1)(b) inserting paragraph 1(1D) into the First Schedule to the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017: 'the taxable income of a resident or non-resident individual for a year of assessment commencing from April 1, 2025 shall be taxed at the following rates' — 6% up to Rs. 1,000,000; Rs. 60,000 + 18% over Rs. 1,000,000 up to Rs. 1,500,000; Rs. 150,000 + 24% up to Rs. 2,000,000; Rs. 270,000 + 30% up to Rs. 2,500,000; Rs. 420,000 + 36% above Rs. 2,500,000 |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
READ THE FIRST BAND CORRECTLY: the schedule starts at 6%, NOT at a zero-rate band — the tax-free amount is delivered separately as the PERSONAL RELIEF, and if you apply these bands to gross income you will overtax every individual. The personal relief in paragraph 2(a) of the Fifth Schedule was raised to LKR 1,800,000 per year of assessment for years commencing on or after 1 April 2025 (item (v), inserted by section 5 of Act No. 2 of 2025), up from LKR 1,200,000. Combined effect: the first LKR 1,800,000 of assessable income is untaxed, the next LKR 1,000,000 is taxed at 6%, and the 36% top rate bites at LKR 4,300,000 of assessable income. WHAT CHANGED IN 2025: the previous schedule (paragraph 1(1C), in force 1 Apr 2023 to 31 Mar 2025) ran in LKR 500,000 steps at 6/12/18/24/30/36% off a LKR 1,200,000 relief, so the top rate started at LKR 3,700,000; the 2025 reform widened the bottom band to LKR 1,000,000, deleted the 12% step and lifted the relief by LKR 600,000. STILL CURRENT FOR 2026/27: the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2026 (certified 3 June 2026) does NOT alter paragraph 1(1D) or the LKR 1,800,000 relief — it was read in full to confirm this — so the same bands apply to the year of assessment commencing 1 April 2026. CARVE-OUTS NOT MODELLED IN THE BANDS: an individual's gains and profits from services rendered to a person outside Sri Lanka for use outside Sri Lanka paid in foreign currency and remitted through a bank, and foreign-source income remitted in foreign currency, are capped at 15% (paragraph 1(6), from 1 Apr 2025); the business income described in paragraph 1(4) (betting and gaming, liquor and tobacco) is taxed at 45% from 1 Apr 2025, up from 40%; and an individual's gains from realising investment assets rose from 10% to 15% under paragraph 1(2)(a) as amended by section 36 of Act No. 11 of 2026, from that Act's commencement. Employment income is collected by APIT withholding; withholding on interest or discount paid rose from 5% to 10% with effect from 1 April 2025. ACCESS PROBLEM: ird.gov.lk was down domain-wide at confirmation (HTTP 503 / 'System Maintenance'), so the IRD's own APIT tables could not be cross-checked; the bands here are read from the certified Act text at documents.gov.lk, the official gazette publisher. Next likely change: the annual Budget, usually presented in November with effect from the following 1 April.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-04-01 | structured | Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017, First Schedule paragraph |
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/lk/income-tax
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/lk/income-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
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