Burkina Faso non-resident services withholding

General reference only. This skill is general tax/accounting reference material for AI-assisted workflows. It has not been reviewed for any specific person's facts, documents, elections, deadlines, residency, filing status, or local procedures. Do not rely on it to file, pay, amend, or take a tax position without review by a qualified professional in the relevant jurisdiction.

Who this applies to

Use this Guide when a Burkina Faso payer pays a non-resident individual or entity for services provided or used in Burkina Faso. Article 210 expressly reserves double-taxation conventions: determine residence, the income's classification and any applicable treaty before applying domestic withholding. Work performed abroad is not excluded merely because the supplier never visits Burkina Faso if the service is used there. CGI art. 210.

Under article 213 the withholding agents include individuals/entities taxed on profits under a real regime; the State, local authorities and public establishments; projects and programmes; NGOs, associations, foundations and cooperatives and their unions/federations; diplomatic/consular representations and international or assimilated bodies; and other legal entities in the non-determined regime. Do not assume only commercial companies withhold. CGI art. 213.

The job is domestic-law services withholding. Dividends, interest, resident-supplier withholding, permanent-establishment profit returns, exit tax and VAT need their own analysis. A foreign address alone does not resolve whether an enterprise is established locally.

Rates, bands and thresholds

Item	2026 condition and amount	Official source
General non-resident services	20% of the net sums paid, including amounts and incidental expenses incurred by the debtor for the provider; subject to a relevant double-taxation convention	CGI arts. 210, 212
Road carriage of goods	10% only for amounts paid exclusively for road-freight services; subject to treaty analysis	CGI art. 212
Monthly remittance	By the 15th of the following month for sums put into payment during the month	CGI art. 214
No/insufficient withholding	Debtor owes the unwithheld amount plus 25%; loses the right to deduct the recalled withholding as its own professional expense	CGI art. 768(1)
Withheld but remitted late	15% for each month or fraction of a month late	CGI art. 768(2)
Withheld with no remittance within three months from due date	Unpaid withholding plus a 200% penalty	CGI art. 768(3)

Article 212 also prohibits the debtor bearing the withholding. Do not silently promise the provider a fixed net receipt and increase the fee using an automatic gross-up. Refer an existing net-of-tax contract for legal review. CGI art. 212.

The base

1. Identify the contract, provider's residence and establishment position, service deliverables, where they are provided/used, the amount put into payment and each expense paid for the provider. CGI arts. 210–214.
2. Article 211 expressly includes studies/advice, engineering, IT, accounting, audit, advertising, training, communication and technical assistance; head-office expenses; rights to patents, trademarks, franchises, designs, plans, secret processes and industrial/commercial/scientific equipment other than immovable property; know-how and copyright; and non-domiciled performers/sportspersons participating in events organised or produced locally. Classify each component and its treaty treatment rather than labelling every payment consultancy. CGI art. 211.
3. Include ancillary expenses incurred by the payer for the provider in the article 212 base. The statute uses “montant net des sommes versées”; do not reinterpret this as a supplier-guaranteed after-tax receipt. The example assumes documented contractual remuneration before deduction of the withholding, with no separate VAT or treaty adjustment. CGI art. 212.
4. Apply the road-freight reduction only to a payment exclusively for road carriage of goods. A combined consultancy/logistics package does not meet that condition merely because transport is its largest component. Obtain support for separately priced, genuinely distinct contracts before deciding an allocation. CGI art. 212.

Deadlines and filing

Under article 214, use the month the sums are put into payment, aggregate the withholding and remit it by the 15th of the next month to the payer's tax office. Prepare the prescribed declaration showing for each provider:

• Name or corporate name and legal form; activity/profession.
• Geographical and postal addresses and telephone number; nationality.
• Nature of the services; date and amount of each payment; withholding amount.

Attach an individual withholding certificate for each provider on the administration's prescribed model. Reconcile the declaration and certificate totals with the ledger and the remittance. Article 671 requires a payment receipt; retain it with the filed declaration and supporting contracts. CGI arts. 214 and 671.

The DGI official navigation links eSINTAX. The current form number, portal boxes and authenticated submission sequence were not read. Obtain the current prescribed declaration and certificate from the competent tax office before filing; this draft does not invent a box number. For a payment put into payment in November 2026, article 214's ordinary due date is 15 December 2026, subject to any specific official extension separately established.

Penalties and interest

Apply article 768 according to the actual failure: unwithheld/insufficient withholding, late remittance after withholding, or no remittance within the three-month period. Retain dates and the withheld/unwithheld split. The first branch makes the debtor personally liable; it does not authorise a debtor-funded gross-up under article 212. CGI arts. 212 and 768.

The table states the separate statutory branches. It does not conclude that they cumulate or give a safe harbour for non-payment. No additional interest figure is asserted without a separate applicable provision.

Cross-border points

Before applying a treaty reduction or exemption, identify the actual treaty, its continued force and income article, the provider's qualifying residence, and any permanent establishment or fixed base. Article 210's reservation does not itself establish any particular treaty rate or exemption. This Guide has not verified a treaty matrix or the current claim procedure. Refer a proposed treaty position before paying without domestic withholding. CGI art. 210.

For related-party services, article 66's profit-adjustment rule and documentation obligations require separate work in bf-transfer-pricing. Withholding does not establish that a service expense is deductible or priced at arm's length. CGI arts. 66 and 99.

Two worked examples that recompute

Consultancy plus travel paid for the provider. Assume the payer is an article 213 business, the non-resident has no relevant treaty relief, and the work is used in Burkina Faso. Contract remuneration before withholding is XOF 5 million; the payer also spends XOF 500,000 for the provider's travel. With no separate VAT issue in the case, the base is XOF 5.5 million and withholding is XOF 1.1 million. Deduct that from the cash fee: the provider receives XOF 3.9 million cash plus the travel benefit. Total payer outlay is XOF 5.5 million, including the tax paid over.

name: Consultancy with incidental travel expense
inputs:
  cash_fee: 5000000
  provider_travel: 500000
steps:
  withholding_base: cash_fee + provider_travel
  withholding: withholding_base * 0.20
  cash_to_provider: cash_fee - withholding
  payer_outlay: cash_to_provider + provider_travel + withholding
expected:
  withholding_base: 5500000
  withholding: 1100000
  cash_to_provider: 3900000
  payer_outlay: 5500000

Decision on the reduced rate. For a XOF 10 million payment, a contract exclusively for non-resident road carriage of goods produces XOF 1 million withholding and XOF 9 million paid to the provider. A single XOF 10 million combined transport/consultancy service does not satisfy the exclusive-road-freight condition: on the stated no-treaty facts, use the general rate, producing XOF 2 million withholding and XOF 8 million paid to the provider. This is classification based on the actual service, not an elective tax-saving choice.

name: Exclusive road freight versus mixed service
inputs:
  remuneration: 10000000
steps:
  road_withholding: remuneration * 0.10
  road_net: remuneration - road_withholding
  mixed_withholding: remuneration * 0.20
  mixed_net: remuneration - mixed_withholding
expected:
  road_withholding: 1000000
  road_net: 9000000
  mixed_withholding: 2000000
  mixed_net: 8000000

Ask the client first

• What is the provider's tax residence, legal form and Burkina Faso establishment position?
• What services, rights or transport are supplied, and where are they provided or used?
• Which payer category under article 213 applies?
• What contract amount, ancillary expenses and payment dates are involved, and does the contract promise a net receipt?
• Is road carriage of goods the exclusive service, and what evidence supports any separately priced contracts?
• Is treaty relief claimed, with which treaty and supporting documents, and are the parties related?

Sources

Official source	Provisions actually read	Read on
DGI official CGI 2026	Edition statement; arts. 66, 99, 210–214, 671 and 768, including neighbouring scope/rate/failure branches. Relevant sections read from the downloaded text, not the full 566 pages.	2026-11-01
DGI source index	Official 2026 code link and eSINTAX navigation link; no authenticated portal session.	2026-11-01

Not yet confirmed: current declaration/certificate form identifiers, portal boxes and submission workflow; treaty availability, continued force and relief procedure for any particular residence; permanent-establishment profit taxation; VAT interaction; expense deductibility; sanction cumulation; handling an existing net-of-tax contractual promise. No accountant has attested to this draft. Independent AI source review was accepted for the stated draft scope; this is not an accountant review.