Cote d’Ivoire unveils mobile money tax
A new tax of 0.5 percent has been introduced on money transfers made through telephone companies in Cote d’Ivoire or their intermediaries, and relates particularly to remittances, according to the 2018 Tax Schedule.
“The tax shall be borne by the payer and debited at the rate of 0.5 percent of the amount of the money transfers made by the national telephone operator, whose platform is used for the transfer, or by the local provider of money transfer network,” the tax authorities explained.
This tax applies to all transfers of money made through local telephone operators or their distributors, and to local providers of money transfer networks, or their intermediaries, according to the Tax Schedule 2018, which has been in force for a week.
Money transfer activity is booming in Cote d’Ivoire, where throughout the country remittance companies and their intermediaries offer people money transfer services via their platforms or mobile phone.
The money transfers generate transactions estimated annually at several hundred billion CFA francs, but “the introduction of these transactions still falls short of the true potential because the tax administration is having difficulties in understanding the real volume of transfers, especially money transfers made by mobile money,” the tax authorities said.
The number of mobile phone subscribers in Cote d’Ivoire increased from 16 million in 2011 to 30 million in 2017. The revenue expected from this tax measure is estimated at ten billion CFA francs.
