- No sign yet
Details and sources
- Promised
- FAST launched its manifesto at Apita o Pisaga Hall, Salelologa, Savaiʻi, on Saturday 12 July 2025 13. Samoa Global News reported that day that FAST would cut "Corporate Tax" from 27% to 23% 3. That Samoa Global News report also listed a separate pledge to cut the top PAYE rate for wage earners from 27% to 23% 4. On 14 July 2025 Talamua reported a plan to bring "the employers income tax" down from 27% to 23% 2. Talamua's wording could mean company tax or the PAYE that employers take from wages, so it is not exact 2. On 28 August 2025, the day before polling day, Samoa Observer summed up the pledge as "cut business tax to 23%" 5. In a "Budget lens" note in the same article, Samoa Observer wrote that the two parties other than SUP, which are FAST and HRPP in its list, had "no position on how to counter the missing numbers" from removing tax 56. Samoa Global News repeated the 23% company tax pledge on 3 September 2025, after the vote 7. RNZ Pacific's 22 July 2025 list of FAST policies does not include the company tax cut 8. None of these reports gives a start date or a cost for the cut 235. We have not found the manifesto itself, so we cannot check its exact words.
- What happened
- Finance Minister Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molioʻo presented the 2025/26 Budget Address on 6 October 2025 11. That budget kept the existing income tax rates, which the address called a "commitment to fiscal stability and fairness" 10. It set aside SAT$16 million for cheap business loans 12. The 2026/27 Budget Address, dated 26 May 2026, kept the rates again, "ensuring that additional pressure is not placed on households and businesses" 14. Parliament passed the 2026/27 budget just before midnight on Thursday 25 June 2026 20. The 2026/27 budget raised the Development Bank of Samoa loan facility from SAT$10 million to SAT$15 million 15. The 2026/27 Budget Address said SAT$13 million in cheap Development Bank loans had so far helped 30 businesses 16. The Ministry of Revenue's rates page still gives 27% for resident companies 21. The government's Samoa Investment Guide 2026 gives the same 27% rate 23. Parliament's list of laws shows no income tax act newer than the Income Tax Amendment Act 2022 25. The one tax law listed since the election is the Miscellaneous (Removal of Tax Exemption for International Companies) Amendment Act 26. Its title points to removing tax exemptions, not to a rate cut 26. Parliament passed that bill on Tuesday 20 January 2026, with the aim of taking Samoa off the EU tax blacklist 27. Samoa Observer reported that in the debate on the bill, Opposition Leader Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi suggested lower taxes for foreign companies to encourage them to register 28. In reply, Prime Minister Laʻauli said that "companies come and go" and that the new government has ways to subsidise funds, Samoa Observer reported 29. We found no public statement by the Prime Minister or a minister on the 23% pledge since the election. Samoa Observer's one-year review on 15 September 2026 listed tax cuts among FAST's promises 30. The review said several of the biggest pledges remain unfulfilled 31. The part of the review we could read does not say which pledges are still unmet 31.
- Impact on families
- The rate has not changed, so no company has paid less tax because of this promise, and families have seen no effect from it 2123. Income tax paid by corporations and other enterprises rose from SAT$64.4 million in 2022/23 to SAT$93.1 million in 2023/24 and SAT$113.0 million in 2024/25, with the rate at 27% throughout 2432. All three of those years came before the September 2025 election 32. If the cut were made, families would feel it indirectly: through jobs, wages or prices, and through less revenue for public services. We found no study that measures those effects in Samoa.
- Cost
- We found no costing of this cut by FAST or by the government 361014. Corporations and other enterprises paid SAT$113.0 million in income tax in 2024/25 32. A straight cut of 4 points out of 27 on that amount would be up to about SAT$16.7 million a year 32. That is our own sum, not an official figure. It assumes profits stay the same, and not all of the SAT$113.0 million is company tax 32.
- Verdict for families
- Costs aiga
- Can it be done?
- A stretch
- Long term
- Mixed long term
- Who deserves the credit
-
Started by an earlier government
The 27% rate dates from 1 January 2007, when it came down from 29%, and Laʻauli's government has kept it in both its budgets 101424. The cheap Development Bank loans it scaled up to SAT$15 million in 2026/27 build on an earlier SAT$11 million facility that, by the 2025/26 Budget Address, had helped 110 medium and large businesses 1315.
- Who gains
- If the cut were made, profitable companies would keep SAT$4 more of every SAT$100 of taxable profit, up to about SAT$16.7 million a year in total on 2024/25 collections (our own estimate) 2132.
- Who pays
- If the cut were made, taxpayers and public services would lose up to about SAT$16.7 million a year (our own estimate), in a 2026/27 budget that already plans a cash deficit of about SAT$215.9 million 1832.
- Assessment
- The cut would go only to companies that make a taxable profit, and the bigger the profit, the bigger the gain 21. Sole traders pay the personal rates, the same rates as wage earners, so this cut would give them nothing 22. In an editorial on 13 July 2025, the Samoa Observer Editorial Board wrote that FAST had "failed to outline how they plan to finance" its promises 9. We found no FAST plan to pay for this tax cut 69. The 2026/27 budget already plans a cash deficit of about SAT$215.9 million and counts on tax revenue rising 17% 1718. For 2025/26, the plan and the reported result differ. The budget planned a cash deficit of about SAT$210.9 million, or 3.5% of GDP 19. On 24 August 2026 Samoa Observer reported that the government "managed to sustain a budget surplus" in 2025/26 33. We could not read the full Samoa Observer article, so we do not know how that surplus was measured. By keeping the rate, the government kept revenue that pays for services. Giving up as much as SAT$16.7 million a year, mostly to profitable firms, would cost families unless the money came back through jobs and wages. HRPP made a different tax pledge: the top income tax rate from 27% to 25%, plus a five-year tax holiday for new small businesses 3435.
Sources (35)
- FAST Party Manifesto Centres on the Family Unit
- FAST Party Manifesto Centres on the Family Unit
- FAST Manifesto Promises Tax Cuts and Support to Industry
- FAST Manifesto Promises Tax Cuts and Support to Industry
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
- Landslide Win for Laaulialemalietoa as FAST looks Certain to be Samoa's next Government
- Samoa election: Political parties make big promises on health, welfare and economy
- More promises, FAST and its manifesto
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Parliament passes budget
- Rates – Ministry of Revenue
- Rates – Ministry of Revenue
- Samoa Investment Guide 2026
- Samoa Investment Guide 2026
- Bills, Acts and Regulations – Parliament of Samoa
- Bills, Acts and Regulations – Parliament of Samoa
- Foreign companies tax exemption removal bill passed
- Foreign companies tax exemption removal bill passed
- Foreign companies tax exemption removal bill passed
- FAST Government one year on: What has been delivered and what remains
- FAST Government one year on: What has been delivered and what remains
- Government Finance Statistics December 2025 Quarter
- Grant revenue plunges $78 million as social protection spending rises
- All you need to know about the Sāmoa 2025 general elections
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
Is it funded?
No budget line
No budget line carries out this promise 13. A tax cut would show up as a lower tax rate or lower revenue forecasts, not as a spending line. The 2025/26 Budget Address, dated 6 October 2025, kept existing income tax rates 1. The 2025/26 budget aimed instead to collect more through compliance and enforcement 2. The 2026/27 Budget Address, dated 26 May 2026, kept the rates again 3. The 2026/27 budget plans a 17% rise in tax revenue, helped in part by a 3% rise in tobacco excise from 1 January 2027 4. On 27 May 2026 Samoa Observer also reported that the rates were unchanged, with a focus on compliance 5. Help for business went into cheap loans instead, including a SAT$15 million Development Bank of Samoa line in 2026/27 6. We could not open the Approved Estimates for 2025/26 and 2026/27, so we cannot confirm the company tax revenue lines under the Ministry for Revenue vote.
Sources (6)
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2025/2026
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Budget Address 2026/2027
- Public to have say on $1.5 billion budget
- Budget Address 2026/2027
What research says
Research is mixed
Pacific governments have moved company tax both ways 15. When Samoa raised VAGST in 2001 and 2006, it cut personal and company income tax rates at the same time to offset the rise 2. Samoa cut its company tax rate from 29% to 27% in 2007 1. Fiji cut its rate from 28% to 20% in 2012 3. In Tonga, company tax revenue fell after tax reform. A 2014 evaluation gave the main reasons as big rate cuts and the economic slowdown 4. Fiji raised its rate from 20% to 25% from 1 August 2023 5. Fiji's budget papers expected that rise to bring in about FJ$73.5 million more 6. Fiji's 2025-2026 Budget Address said the rise had added costs for business 7. A 2012 IMF working paper studied company tax in 50 emerging and developing economies from 1996 to 2007 8. The IMF paper found that higher rates hold back investment but do raise revenue in the short run 9. We found no study of a company tax cut in Samoa itself, so most of this evidence fits Samoa only in part.
Sources (9)
- Evaluation of taxation reform in the Pacific
- Evaluation of taxation reform in the Pacific
- Evaluation of taxation reform in the Pacific
- Evaluation of taxation reform in the Pacific
- Economic and Fiscal Update – Supplement to the 2023-2024 Budget Address
- Economic and Fiscal Update – Supplement to the 2023-2024 Budget Address
- 2025-2026 National Budget Address
- A Partial Race to the Bottom: Corporate Tax Developments in Emerging and Developing Economies
- A Partial Race to the Bottom: Corporate Tax Developments in Emerging and Developing Economies
Cost and reach
Corporations and other enterprises paid SAT$113.0 million in income tax in 2024/25 1. Taking 4 points out of 27 gives up to about SAT$16.7 million a year 1. That is our own sum, not an official figure. The SAT$113.0 million line covers "corporations and other enterprises", so not all of it is company tax 1. Only companies would gain, because sole traders pay the personal rates 2. On 16 June 2026 Talamua reported that Revenue Minister Pauga Talalelei Pauga told Parliament, in the debate on the 2026/27 budget estimates, that there are 5,000 registered companies in Samoa 3. We found no official count of how many companies pay company tax, so the number reached is unknown.
Sources (3)
- Government Finance Statistics December 2025 Quarter
- Rates – Ministry of Revenue
- Fake Invoices have short-changed Government for so long – PM told Parliament
Helps: Business owners · Foreign investors and developers
Paid for by: Taxpayers · Future budgets and debt
All 2025 promises in Cost of living and tax →
Folafolaga · https://folafolaga.pages.dev/promises/fast-cost-company-tax-23/ · Printed from the version last checked 23 October 2026. Every claim's source is listed on that page.