A quote from a Maldives property usually starts with a clean nightly rate, and the add-ons appear only at the booking or checkout stage. Each add-on has a different legal owner: the green tax sits in the Maldives Tourism Act and is fixed in US dollars per person, T-GST is a percentage under the Goods and Services Tax Act, the service charge is the property's own charge, and the airport levies are collected by airlines. Knowing which is which lets you rebuild any quote into an all-in number.
What taxes are added to a Maldives hotel bill?
| Line on the bill | Who sets it | How it is calculated | Taxed by T-GST? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room, meals, activities | The property | Its price | Yes, 17% |
| Service charge | The property | Usually a percentage of the bill | Yes, same rate as the supply |
| T-GST | GST Act | 17% of the taxable amount | Not applicable |
| Green tax | Tourism Act | USD 12 or 6 per guest per day | No |
The Maldives runs two GST rates. MIRA's GST page lists 8% for the general sector and 17% for the tourism sector from 1 July 2025, after 12% (November 2014 to December 2022) and 16% (January 2023 to June 2025). The tourism rate covers supplies by resorts, hotels, tourist guesthouses, tourist vessels (safari boats), picnic islands and marinas, plus dive schools, shops, spas and water sports on those properties, travel agencies, and domestic flights sold to anyone who is not a Maldivian citizen. The 17% figure comes from the seventh amendment to the GST Act, passed in November 2024.
If an old confirmation shows 16%, that is not an error. MIRA's rate-change fact sheet applies the rate in force at the "time of supply", meaning whichever came first, the invoice or the payment.
Is the service charge a tax?
No. Tax law does not set a service charge rate; the property does. What the law does fix is how it is taxed: section 52 of the GST Regulation says service charges "shall be subject to tax at the same rate as such supply", and that voluntary tips are not part of the service charge. So at a resort, 17% T-GST is charged on the service charge too, while a cash tip you hand to a staff member is outside GST.
The same regulation (section 109) sets rules for displaying GST-inclusive prices. If a rate card or menu does not say whether tax is included, ask before you order: with a 10% service charge and 17% T-GST both on top, a USD 20 dish costs USD 25.74 (20 x 1.10 x 1.17).
How is the green tax calculated, and who pays it?
The green tax is a flat US dollar charge per tourist per day. Under the fourteenth amendment to the Tourism Act, ratified on 5 November 2024, the main rate doubled from USD 6 to USD 12 from 1 January 2025, and the lower rate for small inhabited-island hotels and guesthouses doubled from USD 3 to USD 6. MIRA's green tax page sets out which properties pay which:
- USD 12: tourist resorts, integrated resorts, resort hotels, tourist vessels, and any hotel or guesthouse on an uninhabited island or with more than 50 rooms.
- USD 6: hotels and tourist guesthouses on inhabited islands with 50 rooms or fewer.
This is the main green tax difference between a resort and a local-island guesthouse; our guide to choosing a local island or a resort covers the other trade-offs.
"Per day" is counted in 24-hour blocks, not calendar nights. MIRA's computation rule treats each 24-hour block from check-in as one taxable day, charged if you spend 12 hours or more of it at the property. A normal five-night stay, arriving at 14:00 and leaving at 12:00 five days later, is 118 hours: four full blocks plus a 22-hour block, so five taxable days. A long late checkout of the same stay would not create a sixth day unless you stayed 12 hours into the next block.
The tax is owed by the guest but collected by the operator. MIRA's Green Tax Guide requires the amount to be shown on the invoice or receipt and tells operators to remove it before computing GST, which is why green tax never attracts the 17%. Children under 2 have been exempt since 1 January 2025; from their second birthday they pay the full rate.
Where does the green tax money go?
The green tax started on 1 November 2015 at USD 6 per tourist per day, under the sixth amendment to the Tourism Act. The Act itself does not earmark the money. The Ministry of Finance's revenue policy page states that it "is deposited to the Maldives Green Fund; a trust fund established to earmark funds from green tax to spend on climate change mitigation measures and other environmental initiatives". We could not find an official list of projects financed by the fund, so this article does not say what any particular year's collections paid for.
What is already in your air ticket?
Two further charges apply when you leave, and airlines collect them in the fare on scheduled flights. According to MIRA's airport taxes page, from 1 December 2024 each is:
| Travel class | Departure tax, foreign passenger | Airport development fee, foreign passenger |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | USD 50 | USD 50 |
| Business | USD 120 | USD 120 |
| First | USD 240 | USD 240 |
| Private jet | USD 480 | USD 480 |
Before December 2024 the economy rate for foreigners was USD 30 each, so fares quoted from older price lists can look lower. The development fee applies only to departures from Velana International Airport; direct-transit passengers and diplomats are exempt from it, and children under 2 are exempt from departure tax. None of this should appear again on a hotel bill; the transfer from the airport to your island is a separate cost, covered in our guide to getting from Velana airport to a resort.
A five-night example for two adults
The room prices below are assumptions for illustration, with a 10% service charge because that is what the example quote shows; check your own quote's percentage. The tax arithmetic follows the rules above.
On the resort example the add-ons turn a USD 2,000 room price into USD 2,694, a 34.7% uplift; on the guesthouse example they add 40.7%, because the fixed green tax weighs more against a lower room rate. Meals, drinks, excursions and transfers bought at the property carry service charge and T-GST in the same way, but no extra green tax.
What changes for bookings through foreign agencies from 1 October 2026?
The eighth amendment to the GST Act, gazetted on 31 August 2026, brings "inbound tourism products" (accommodation, meals, transport or any other tourist activity in the Maldives) and related booking or agency services into GST when they are sold by a business with no fixed place of business in the country. From 1 October 2026 those supplies are taxed at 17%.
This does not tax your room twice. MIRA's guide for these suppliers, published on 11 September 2026, deducts what the foreign seller paid a GST-registered Maldivian supplier, so the tax falls on the seller's margin. In MIRA's example, a package bought for USD 2,457 and resold for USD 3,194.10 gives a taxable value of USD 630 and GST of USD 107.10. MIRA does not say how sellers will show this to customers; if you book through an overseas online agency or tour operator for a stay after 1 October 2026, check whether its price is marked as including Maldives taxes, and compare it with the property's direct rate worked out as above.