Definition
GCT, or General Consumption Tax, is Jamaica's sales tax on most goods and services. Businesses registered with Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) add it to prices, collect it from customers and pay it over, less GCT they paid on their own purchases.
Rate and threshold
- Standard rate: 15 percent. The government reduced GCT from 16.5 to 15 percent in the 2020/21 budget, as the Prime Minister noted in the 2024/25 Budget Speech. Some supplies carry other rates, zero-rating or exemption.
- Registration threshold: J$15 million. The 2025/26 budget raised it from J$10 million, as reported by the Jamaica Information Service. TAJ's GCT page sets the threshold at J$15,000,000 over 12 months, or an average of J$1,250,000 a month for a shorter period.
A worked example
A registered mini-mart sells a taxable item for J$200 before tax. GCT at 15 percent is J$30, so the customer pays J$230. If the shelf price is tax-inclusive at J$1,150, the price before tax is 1,150 / 1.15 = J$1,000 and the GCT is J$150.
Over a month, the shop collects J$60,000 of GCT on sales and paid J$38,000 of GCT on stock it bought for resale. It owes the difference, J$22,000, on its return, as TAJ describes, because registered taxpayers can claim input tax. Zero-rated and exempt goods are treated differently. See zero-rated.
Common mistakes
- Charging GCT when not registered. Only registered taxpayers may charge it.
- Waiting too long to register. Watch your running 12-month sales against the threshold.
- Treating collected GCT as your money. Set it aside when you take it.
- Mislabelling products. Tag each item as taxable or not.
See GCT for small shops in Jamaica, the GCT calculator and the Jamaica page. In Shopkeepa, GCT is a shop setting with a taxable flag per product. Shopkeepa is pre-launch.
Related terms
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