Kuwait public holidays 2026, VAT rate and tax data
Kuwait: 9 public holidays in 2026; corporate tax rate 15%; minimum wage 75 KWD per month; policy interest rate 3.5%; inflation rate (CPI) 2.19%.
11 series, each cited to the official source it was verified against; most recently verified 16 Sep 2026. Currency KWD.
verified recentlyre-verification due soonstaleColour is the age of the last check against the series' own update cycle.
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{ "country": "KW", "series": "policy-rate", "value": 3.5, "unit": "percent", "effective_from": "2025-12-11", "last_confirmed": "2026-09-13", "source": { "name": "Central Bank of Kuwait press release, 10 Dec 2025", "url": "https://www.cbk.gov.kw/en/cbk-news/announcements-and-press-releases/press-releases/2025/12/202512101500-cbk-cuts-the-discount-rate-by-25-basis-points-to-350" } }
Excerpt, from the same data as this page. This endpoint is $0.003 a call by x402 or MPP, no signup. With a free key, try POST /v1/answers/working-days {"country":"kw","from":"2026-10-29","to":"2026-11-28"}.
Kuwait public holidays 2026
9 days in 2026. Official source: Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law No. 6 of 2010 (statutory holiday list, published by… · last verified 24 Jul 2026
Fixed by law 1 Confirmed 5 Estimated 2 Substitute 1
| Date | Holiday | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan 2026 Thu | New Year's Day (Gregorian) | Fixed by law | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 18 Jan 2026 Sun | Isra and Miraj public holiday declared for Sunday 18 Jan 2026 (moon/Hijri dependent) |
Confirmed | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 25 Feb 2026 Wed | National Day | Confirmed | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 26 Feb 2026 Thu | Liberation Day | Confirmed | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 20 Mar 2026 Fri | Eid al-Fitr first day, officially announced 20 Mar 2026; public-sector holiday 19-23 Mar 2026 (moon-sighting dependent) |
Estimated | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 26 May 2026 Tue | Waqfat Arafat start of the public-sector Eid al-Adha holiday, 26-31 May 2026 |
Confirmed | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 27 May 2026 Wed | Eid al-Adha — first day (10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1447), moon-sighting dependent | Estimated | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 16 Jun 2026 Tue | Islamic (Hijri) New Year 1448 AH observed Tuesday 16 Jun 2026 |
Substitute | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
| 25 Aug 2026 Tue | Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid al-Nabi, 12 Rabi al-Awwal 1448) — EXPECTED, not yet officially declared at confirmation | Confirmed | Article 68, Private Sector Labour Law… |
Status is read from the record: fixed by law follows from a standing rule (a fixed date or the Easter computus); confirmed is dated in the cited official calendar and not flagged provisional; estimated is provisional or moon-sighting dependent; substitute stands in for a statutory day that fell on a weekend or was moved. Hover a status for the reason.
Every current Kuwait value
Rate schedules and breakdowns
Withholding tax rates
0–5% across 4 withholding taxes — no single rate · in force from 2008-02-03 · Official source: Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA), official Invest in Kuwait… · last verified 26 Aug 2026
Rates by payment type
| key | label | rate | applies to | effective from | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividends | Dividends | 0 | dividends paid by Kuwaiti companies to non-residents | — | Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion… |
| No withholding tax. Listed-security dividends are outright exempt since November 2015. A residual 15% custodian deduction exists only as a collection device where a dividend is still taxable to a foreign corporate body under the income tax decree - see top-level notes; it is not… | |||||
| interest | Interest | 0 | interest paid from Kuwait to non-residents | — | Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion… |
| Interest is paid gross. A foreign corporate lender carrying on business in Kuwait may itself be assessable to 15% corporate income tax on Kuwaiti-source income - by assessment, not withholding. | |||||
| royalties | Royalties | 0 | royalties paid from Kuwait to non-residents | — | Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion… |
| Royalties are paid gross at source. Royalty income of a foreign corporate body is Kuwaiti-source income assessable to the 15% corporate income tax through the assessment process, and payments under a contract will typically sit behind the 5% retention until clearance. | |||||
| contract-retention | Contract retention - NOT a withholding tax | 5 | every payment (or the contract value) made by any public body or private entity to any incorporated body under a contract, agreement or transaction, held back until the beneficiary presents a Ministry of Finance tax clearance certificate | 2008-02-03 | Executive Bylaws of Law No. 2 of 2008… |
| THIS IS SECURITY, NOT TAX: the 5% is not remitted to the treasury as a levy on the payment - it is withheld by the contract owner and released in full to the payee once the payee's own tax position is cleared (tax clearance certificate or no-objection letter from the Kuwait Tax… | |||||
Statutory social-insurance contributions
0–22% across 2 contribution branches · in force from 2026-01-01 · Official source: Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS), Kuwait · last verified 11 Aug 2026 secondary
| key | label | rate total | rate employee | rate employer | unit | base | currency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| social_insurance_kuwaiti_national | التأمينات الاجتماعية — للكويتيين / PIFSS social insurance (basic and supplementary pension plus unemployment insurance) — KUWAITI NATIONALS ONLY | 22 | 10.5 | 11.5 | percent | The insured person's monthly salary, being the total salary in the basic insurance together with the salary in the supplementary insurance, subject to a maximum of KWD 2,750 per month. APPLIES ONLY TO KUWAITI NATIONALS. A national of another GCC State working in Kuwait is covered under the unified GCC insurance-protection arrangement and contributes to their HOME State's scheme at that State's rates, not at these. A non-GCC expatriate is outside the scheme entirely. | KWD |
| THE STATE IS A THIRD CONTRIBUTOR AND IT IS THE LARGEST ONE AFTER THE EMPLOYER. Alongside the 10.5% employee and 11.5% employer shares, the public Treasury contributes a further 10% of the same salary to the pension scheme and 0.5% to unemployment insurance. The fund therefore… | |||||||
| end_of_service_indemnity_expatriates | مكافأة نهاية الخدمة / End-of-service indemnity for employees outside the social-insurance scheme — employer liability, no contribution rate | — | 0 | — | percent | Not a percentage of monthly payroll and not paid to any fund. A terminal lump sum owed by the employer directly to the employee, computed on length of service and final wage under the Private Sector Labour Law: fifteen days' wage for each of the first five years of service and one month's wage for each year thereafter, with entitlement reduced or lost in defined resignation and misconduct cases. | KWD |
| THIS IS THE ONLY STATUTORY RETIREMENT-TYPE COST FOR THE MAJORITY OF KUWAIT'S PRIVATE-SECTOR WORKFORCE, AND IT CARRIES NO PERCENTAGE. rate_employer is null because there is genuinely no monthly rate — the obligation is an accrual against a future lump sum, not a payroll… | |||||||
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Compare each figure with the other Middle Eastern countries: Policy interest rate · VAT rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage · Public holidays · Inflation rate (CPI) · Corporate tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Statutory interest rate · Income tax rates · Social contributions
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Every value above names the official instrument it came from and the date it takes effect, and we record when we last checked it. Where a value could not be verified against its own statute we do not publish an estimate — the series is simply absent. Where a question falls outside what we hold, the API refuses and explains, free of charge, rather than returning a number that looks right.