Bermuda's Company Count Falls to a Four-Year Low as the New Tax Bites

Local company registrations dropped 10.1% year on year, the first hard read on how the island's 15% corporate tax is reshaping its international-business base.

The number of local companies registered in Bermuda fell to 3,660 at the end of the first quarter, down 442, or 10.1%, on the year, and the fewest since the third quarter of 2021. Total registrations dropped to 15,122, down 1,168 or 7.2%, with exempted companies at 9,702.

The government links the decline to Bermuda's 15% corporate income tax, introduced in 2025 for groups with global revenue above 750 million euros, part of the OECD-led global minimum-tax regime. This is the first hard data on how that tax is reshaping one of the region's premier offshore centers, and it is a template read for every other Caribbean jurisdiction that has built an economy on international business.

The question the numbers raise is whether this is a one-time adjustment as groups restructure, or the start of a longer erosion of the registration base that has underwritten Bermuda's public finances for decades.

Source: The Royal Gazette (September 23, 2026), citing the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics and Minister Jason Hayward.