The United Nations (UN) are the intergovernmental core of peaceful relations across the globe. This means that member states, collectively collaborate to establish diplomacy, stronger political and social relationships, and most importantly developing an economic rapport.
As the UN are a government organisation this means that their staff are granted numerous privileges and immunities in order to be able to fulfil their duties. This can be evidenced by the Charter of the United Nations in Article 105, paragraph 1, which provides that “[t]he Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfilment of its purposes.” This has caused much debate over the past few decades as to whether this means that UN officials are immune from the law or whether the latter is needed for practical and efficacy reasons, such as private law rights and property procurement.
The most integral privilege and perhaps the most controversial is article 2 section 7 of the convention which exempts UN staff from direct taxes (such as those on their salary) and customs duties.
“The United Nations, its assets, income and other property shall be:
(a) Exempt from all direct taxes; it is understood, however, that the United Nations will not claim exemption from taxes which are, in fact, no more than charges for public utility services;
(6) Exempt from customs duties and prohibitions and restrictions on imports and exports in respect of articles imported or exported by the United Nations for its official use. It is understood, however, that articles imported under such exemption will not be sold in the country into which they were imported except under conditions agreed with the Government of that country;”
This means that UN officials are tax exempt across the board from areas such as salary, custom duties, taxation on assets, property or security.
For more information regarding international taxation please see here.
