Hiring someone in Guyana: NIS and GRA PAYE on day one

If you are paying a person in Guyana to show up, take instructions, and work your hours, the Guyana Revenue Authority and the National Insurance Scheme will treat that as employment long before your WhatsApp chat calls them a “consultant”.

Register, deduct, remit before the first wage. Employers: post the role properly. Seekers: ask in writing for your NIS number and whether PAYE will be deducted.

Before the first wage: two numbers you must hold

GRA. Every employer paying remuneration — including government — has to account for Pay As You Earn. Get a Taxpayer Identification Number for the business through GRA’s TIN process (eServices or a GRA office, including regional tax offices). Employees need TINs too; Form 5 and Form 2 expect them. GRA head office is at 200–201 Camp Street, Georgetown; switchboard +592 227-6060 or +592 227-8222. Register for e-Services so monthly files can go in electronically.

NIS. File Form R400F1 (Application for Registration as an Employer). It asks for the paying branch, address, start-up date, nature of business, the employer’s TIN, and headcount. Attach the TIN certificate and business or company registration. The National Insurance and Social Security Act, Chapter 36:01, is the statute.

You will later file a monthly contribution schedule. The Scheme’s own schedule form states that schedules must reach NIS not later than the 15th day of the month following the month the wages relate to, or a surcharge applies. Electronic schedules for monthly- and weekly-paid staff can be sent through esched.nis.org.gy.

What to deduct: NIS is a payroll split, not a tip

NIS covers, on a compulsory basis, persons aged 16 to 60 in insurable employment. People outside that age band who are still in insurable employment are covered for industrial benefits only. Self-employed contributors are not covered for industrial benefits — another reason “we will call you self-employed” is not a kindness.

For employed contributors, NIS puts the total at 14 per cent of actual wage or salary, split 5.6 per cent from the employee and 8.4 per cent from the employer. Insurable earnings are capped, at present, at $280,000 a month or $64,615 a week (the ceiling NIS lists as effective January 2020). Self-employed persons pay 12.5 per cent of declared income; that is their status, not a label you invent for someone on your roster.

GRA’s February 2026 notice uses the same 5.6 per cent figure (ceiling $15,680 a month). Deduct NIS before you finish the PAYE arithmetic.

PAYE: Form 5 by the 14th, Form 2 by 28 February

GRA’s standing instruction is blunt. Under section 93(1) of the Income Tax Act, Chapter 81:01, employers must deduct and remit tax from employees’ emoluments regardless of whether those employees are on contract, and regardless of industry.

Form 5 goes in with the tax on or before the 14th day of the month after payment (Income Tax (Deduction of Tax from Emoluments) Regulations, paragraph 12). Form 2 is due by 28 February in the year of assessment. Every column is mandatory. From 2026 GRA publishes a PAYE guide, Form 2 template and validator; CSV files follow paye-[EmployerName]-[year].csv with no spaces.

Do not copy last year’s bands. The Income Tax (Amendment) Act No. 3 of 2026, explained in Commissioner General Godfrey Statia’s 26 February 2026 notice, sets an annual personal deduction of $1,680,000 or one-third of income, whichever is greater ($140,000 a month on payroll, or one-third after the second-job and overtime allowances); 25 per cent on chargeable income up to $3,360,000; 35 per cent above that; a $10,000 monthly child deduction per child under 18; the first $50,000 a month of a second job and of overtime; and medical/life premiums at the amount paid, 10 per cent of gross, or $50,000 a month, whichever is less.

Employers were told to apply the new thresholds from March 2026, refund January–February over-deductions on that Form 5, and still issue a 7B. Failure to deduct leaves the employer liable for the tax, penalties and interest. Inspectors visit.

Why “contractor” does not dodge PAYE

This is the sentence diaspora owners get wrong.

GRA’s 23 September 2025 reminder states that it is not within the purview of employers to decide whether the person is under a contract of service or a contract for service. Only the Revenue Authority makes that determination under section 93(1). Employers who have been skipping PAYE because the worker signed a “contract for services” were told to cease and desist and commence PAYE deductions immediately. All emoluments to all employees — resident, non-resident, contract of or for service — must appear on Forms 2 and 5.

A genuine independent contractor still exists in Guyana tax law, but you do not get there by renaming a cashier. A true contractor invoices with a TIN, is not on your roster or your hours, and files their own return. The old 2 per cent resident contractor withholding on payments over $500,000 was repealed with effect from 1 January 2022 (Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) Act No. 5 of 2022). GRA’s 2 February 2026 contractors notice repeats that those deductions must stay off. What remains, for non-resident companies doing contract work in Guyana, is 10 per cent withholding on the payment, remitted within 30 days (Corporation Tax Act, section 10B) — that is a different rule, for a different person, and it does not replace PAYE on staff.

If GRA later decides your “contractor” was an employee, you will owe the tax you should have withheld. That is more expensive than doing Form 5 on time.

Do not copy Trinidad’s NIB or Jamaica’s NIS onto a Guyana payroll

Caribbean social-security brands sound interchangeable. The statutes are not.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the National Insurance Board requires employers and employees (and unpaid apprentices, with listed exceptions) to register under the National Insurance Act, Chapter 32:01. The employer deducts the worker’s share when wages are paid and remits the whole contribution under Trinidad’s earnings-class tables — tables amended again by legal notice from January 2026. That system does not let you skip Guyana Form 5.

In Jamaica, ISSA’s country profile records a 3 per cent employee and 3 per cent employer NIS split, with the self-employed paying 6 per cent of covered earnings, plus other Jamaican statutory deductions Guyana does not use. A Kingston invoice-and-no-PAYE template is how a Georgetown hire ends up with no industrial-injury cover and an employer facing GRA.

CSME movement does not merge the three systems. A Skills Certificate lets a qualifying CARICOM national work without a separate work permit. It does not let a Guyanese company apply Jamaican 3-and-3 or Trinidad earnings classes to a warehouse in Ruimveldt. Hire under Guyana law; if you later send the same person to a Trinidad plant, take advice in that jurisdiction.

Seekers: if your first payslip has no NIS number and no PAYE, ask why — then keep applying through GuyaneseJobs.com for employers who already run payroll. Employers: post the vacancy, register with NIS and GRA before the start date, and diary Form 5 on the 14th and NIS on the 15th every month.

Sources

• GRA, employers’ obligations to deduct and remit PAYE: https://gra.gov.gy/employers-obligations-to-deduct-and-remit-paye/
• GRA, File Your PAYE (Form 5 within 14 days): https://gra.gov.gy/business/tax-operations-and-services/accounting-for-employees/file-your-paye/
• GRA, revised personal allowance and deductions for 2026 (26 February 2026): https://gra.gov.gy/notice-to-employers-employees-self-employed-persons-revised-personal-allowance-and-deductions-for-income-tax-2026/
• GRA, contractors 2% withholding repealed: https://gra.gov.gy/contractors-2-withholding-tax/
• GRA, payments to non-resident contractors (10% / 30 days): https://gra.gov.gy/tax-operations-policy9-payments-to-non-resident-companies-contractors-sub-contractors/
• GRA, apply for a TIN: https://gra.gov.gy/business/tax-operations-and-services/apply-for-a-tin/
• NIS, information on contributions: https://www.nis.org.gy/information_on_contributions
• NIS, employer registration form R400F1: https://www.nis.org.gy/pdf/iso/FORM_R400F1_R1_Application_for_Registration_as_Employer.pdf
• NIS electronic schedules: https://www.esched.nis.org.gy/
• NIBTT employer guide: https://www.nibtt.net/Downloads/employer_guide.pdf