On 21st April 2022, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) held preliminary discussions with representatives of META, the company that owns the apps Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp on how to tax their services in the country.
The discussion has been held at TRA headquarters in Dar es Salaam. The initiative is part of the government’s plans to introduce digital services tax on large technology companies.
TRA clarified that the discussion is aimed at how META should pay taxes based on the income they earn in Tanzania and assured that Tanzanians will not be affected by the introduction of these taxes.
Digital Service Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa
Several sub-Saharan African countries have expanded the scope of their indirect taxes to cover digital services, but to date, only a few have implemented some form of direct digital services tax (DST) applying to non-residents with no local physical presence.
Nigeria levies corporate income tax at the standard rate of 30% of taxable income from digital services, to the extent that a company has a significant economic presence in Nigeria and profit can be attributable to such activity.
Kenya introduced a digital service tax at 1.5% in January 2021 on the gross values of digital transactions, targeting resident and non-resident digital service providers. And said this month that it will raise it to 3% in a bid to boost domestic revenues.
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