Flat Tax Chronology

A chronology of countries that have adopted a flat tax, indicating the year of adoption, the personal income tax rate, and the corporate income tax rate appears below.

Flat Tax Jurisdictions
Jurisdiction	Year of Implementation	Personal Tax Rate Percent	Corporate Tax Rate Percent
Jersey	1940	20	20
Hong Kong	1947	16	17.5
Guernsey	1960	20	0
Jamaica	1986	25	33.3
Estonia	1994	21	0
Latvia	1995	25	15
Lithuania	1996	24	15
Russia	2001	13	24
Serbia	2003	14	10
Iraq	2004	15	15
Slovakia	2004	19	19
Ukraine	2004	15	25
Georgia	2005	12	20
Romania	2005	16	16
Turkmenistan	2005	10	20
Trinidad & Tobago	2006	25	25
Kyrgyzstan	2006	10	10
Albania	2007	10	20
Iceland	2007	35.7	18
Macedonia	2007	10	10
Mongolia	2007	10	10,25
Montenegro	2007	9	9
Kazakhstan	2007	10	15
Pridnestrovie	2007	10	0
Bulgaria	2008	10	10
Czech Republic	2008	15	15
Mauritius	2009	15	15
FBiH	2009	10	10
Belarus	2009	12	24
Belize	2009	25	25

A few comments on the table are in order. All but the first four entries were implemented after the collapse of the Soviet empire, most being former states within the Soviet Union. The spread of the flat tax was contagious, as one country after another enacted flat taxes to maintain competitiveness with neighboring countries to attract both foreign and domestic investment.

The more recent entries in the table have tended to enact very low flat rates, with the modal rate at 10 percent. Thirteen have unified their personal and corporate income rates, with the others maintaining different rates between personal and corporate tax rates.