Sark: the island with no income tax

Where is Sark?

Sark lies in the Gulf of Saint-Malo, seven miles east of Guernsey, fourteen miles north-west of Jersey and about twenty miles off the French coast. The island is roughly three and a half miles long and a mile and a half wide. Sark and Little Sark are joined by a narrow isthmus, La Coupée, and there are smaller islands such as Brecqhou.

Politically, Sark is the smallest self-governing island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, one of the three Crown Dependencies. It has its own parliament, the Chief Pleas, and its own taxes. Financial services are supervised by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. What the Bailiwick as a whole looks like is on our page about Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

Daily life is different: no cars, tractors doing the heavy lifting, no airport, no mains water and no sewer network. Every household sorts out its own water, from rain, a well or both. You arrive by boat from Guernsey, and in summer also from Jersey and Normandy.

The tax system: land and people, not income

Sark charges no income tax, no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax and no sales tax. The island funds itself through a property tax, a personal capital tax, import duty on alcohol, tobacco and certain fuels, the property transfer tax and small charges, for example on bicycles and tractors.

The legal basis is the Direct Taxes (Sark) Law of 2002, administered by the Sark Tax Assessor. Every household receives a return for the previous year on 1 January and must send it back with payment by 28 February. Property tax is tied to "quarters": Sark registers land under an old French system in the island cadastre, and the number of quarters is set by the Douzaine, an island committee.

For the personal capital tax there is a flat-rate alternative to a return based on your assets, the forfait, which follows the size of your home in quarters. In 2026 the forfait raised around £479,000 for the island. Buying property costs a property transfer tax of 7.5 per cent of the adjusted value; the law does not say whether buyer or seller pays, only that it is paid.

The tax reform: what comes in 2027 and 2028

Sark's budget has grown, from £1.587 million in 2020 to £2.503 million in 2026, and repairs to La Coupée, the harbour, the sewers and the boats are due. That is why a tax reform consultation has been running since January 2026.

As of September 2026 the committees in charge propose only targeted changes for 2027: one relief is to be limited to one person per household, and the forfait is to get a minimum assessment of 30 quarters, so that wealthy residents of small homes do not fall below the expected minimum. Larger structural reforms are to come as one package for the 2028 tax year. These are committee proposals that Chief Pleas still has to decide. Move to Sark today and you are buying into a tax system that will change.

Living on Sark

You may live on Sark if you are a British citizen or are allowed to move to the UK; the island asks nothing more about nationality or origin. Without British immigration status that is the real hurdle, and it runs through the border agency of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. How the UK system works in principle is in our section on visas and residence.

The housing market is split. Local Market homes, meaning those built since 1976, are reserved for people born on Sark, people who have lived there for at least fifteen years, or family members of such a person. Anyone may live in an Open Market home. New building and alterations need written approval from the Development Control Committee.

Sark, the EU list and your home country

As part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Sark is not on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. What follows you is your home country's law. Moving to a place with no income tax at all is exactly the case that home-country rules on exit charges, trailing tax liability and gifts or estates after departure are written for, so check yours before you go. More on the list itself on our page about the EU list of tax havens.

Sources: Chief Pleas of Sark: Living on Sark; Chief Pleas of Sark: Tax Reform; Chief Pleas of Sark: Tax Reform Update, September 2026; Council of the EU: conclusions of 9 October 2026 on the EU list