Ghana to collect 20 percent VAT on foreign digital services at payment point

Ghana will begin collecting value-added tax on foreign digital services at the moment consumers pay for them. The change applies to streaming subscriptions, cloud storage and online games supplied by companies based abroad.

Officials say this is not a new tax and the rate has not increased. The combined rate remains 20 percent, made up of 15 percent VAT plus 2.5 percent each for the National Health Insurance Levy and the GETFund Levy.

“This is not a new tax, and the rate has not changed. It is the same VAT, now collected when you pay.”

The tax has existed in Ghana’s VAT law since 2022, after amendments to the Value Added Tax Act of 2013. The effective rate fell from 21.9 percent to 20 percent in January 2025 under the Value Added Tax Act of 2025.

Until now, the authority relied on foreign companies to declare their own sales and pay the tax. About 92 companies are registered and paying, while roughly 100 others have been identified as selling to Ghanaian customers without charging or paying the required VAT.

Parliament approved the new collection system in July 2026. It will be run through the Ghana Revenue Authority’s Sentinal system, with banks, mobile money operators and other licensed payment firms collecting the tax at the point of payment and passing it to the authority.

Connecting to the GRA system will be mandatory for those payment institutions. The change targets companies with no physical presence in Ghana, where self-declaration alone has proved slow and uncertain.