Corporate Income Tax in Benin

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

Prepare the ordinary Benin IS calculation and instalment reconciliation in 2026 using the law applicable to the particular accounting period. SARL, SA and SAS fall within the form-based charge; exemptions, incentives and sector conventions must be checked before this ordinary computation is used. CGI 2026, art. 3 CGI 2026, art. 4 CGI 2026, art. 145 CGI 2026, art. 146

The territorial rule covers enterprises operated in Benin and profits allocated to Benin under a double-tax agreement. Resident entities and non-residents with a permanent establishment are addressed by articles 5–6. Do not assume a foreign branch is automatically outside the computation without checking those conditions. This Guide produces a reviewed calculation schedule, not a completed electronic return. CGI 2026, art. 5 CGI 2026, art. 6

Rates, bands and thresholds

Item	Rule and conditions	Official source
Ordinary profit rate	30% of taxable profit for persons other than the 25% group	CGI 2026, art. 46
Industrial/private-school rate	25% for industrial activity excluding extractive industries, and the listed private school, university, technical and professional education entities	CGI 2026, art. 46
Mining/petroleum convention	Use the convention rate, which cannot be lower than the applicable ordinary rate; no fixed 35–45% band is asserted	CGI 2026, art. 46
Ordinary minimum	1% of produits encaissables, with an absolute FCFA 250,000 floor; first screen the sector exceptions below	CGI 2026, art. 47
Construction/public works minimum	3% of produits encaissables	CGI 2026, art. 47
Property-predominant companies	10% of produits encaissables, using the article 101 definition	CGI 2026, art. 47; CGI 2026, art. 101
Used vehicles/certain consumer goods	Separate regulatory minimum; do not use the ordinary formula before that regime is resolved	CGI 2026, art. 47
Service stations and specified non-importing petroleum distributors	At least FCFA 0.60 per litre sold and at least FCFA 250,000, under article 47(5) conditions	CGI 2026, art. 47
ORTB levy	FCFA 4,000 in addition to IS, payable with the March instalment	CGI 2026, art. 47
Loss carry-forward	Up to the fifth year following the loss year, subject to proof, no prior use, same enterprise and the article 43 restrictions	CGI 2026, art. 43

The base

1. Start from the accounts and identify the correct taxpayer, period, territorial scope and any exempt income. The ordinary year closes on 31 December; teaching establishments and qualifying first periods have article 8 exceptions. CGI 2026, art. 8
2. Reconcile accounting profit to taxable profit. The net-profit rule is article 9. Deduct only effective business charges of the correct period, sufficiently supported, producing non-exempt income, reducing net assets and, where required, backed by paid withholding. Apply specific expense restrictions separately; this Guide does not certify every adjustment. Fines and penalties within article 36 are non-deductible. CGI 2026, art. 9 CGI 2026, art. 20 CGI 2026, art. 36
3. Reconcile produits encaissables separately from turnover and taxable profit: include amounts giving or capable of giving a financial flow; exclude capitalised production, inventory production, transfers of charges, and reversals of provisions/depreciation. CGI 2026, art. 47
4. Compare profit-based IS, the applicable sector minimum and the absolute floor. Keep the ORTB levy separate. Route newly created, restructured, art-trading and approved-incentive cases to their specific assessment before finalising. CGI 2026, art. 46 CGI 2026, art. 47 CGI 2026, art. 145 CGI 2026, art. 146
5. Deduct documented instalments and allowable credits once. Record any excess as a credit under article 51 rather than assuming an immediate refund. CGI 2026, art. 51

Deadlines and filing

The annual result declaration is due by 30 April for the preceding exercise. Attach the article 50 accounts, expense/depreciation/provision schedules and required supporting disclosures. Ordinary accounts use the applicable OHADA presentation; regulated sectors have their own frameworks. CGI 2026, art. 49 CGI 2026, art. 50

Four instalments, each normally one quarter of the preceding year's IS, fall due by 10 March, 10 June, 10 September and 10 December. The first instalment can use the penultimate year's tax provisionally if the latest return is not yet filed; regularise at the second instalment. Pay the balance with the annual declaration. A reduction of instalments requires the article 52 process, not an informal decision. CGI 2026, art. 51 CGI 2026, art. 52

Prepare the calculation and attachment list for the authorised filer on DGI e-services. The authenticated form, field mapping, payment reference and acknowledgement were not accessed. Stop before filing until those are confirmed.

Penalties and interest

General filing/payment sanctions and the conditional 2026 first-declaration relief are recorded once in the overview. Assess the facts before using any relief. This working paper does not prepare a penalty assessment.

Cross-border points

Cross-border related-party adjustments belong in the transfer-pricing screen. Dividend, interest and foreign-service withholding is owned by the cross-border withholding Guide, which includes the 2026 rectifying-law distribution and platform gates. Do not reuse the legacy dividend, listed-company or royalty figures. CGI 2026, art. 45 CGI 2026, art. 86 CGI 2026, art. 142

Two worked examples that recompute

Ordinary company, profit tax wins. Assume all tax adjustments have been checked, no incentive or special-sector rule applies, and taxable profit is FCFA 10 million. Produits encaissables are FCFA 100 million. Profit IS is 3 million and the ordinary minimum is 1 million. IS is 3 million; the separate annual ORTB levy is 4,000. The example does not calculate credits or payment timing.

name: Ordinary IS versus minimum
inputs:
  taxable_profit: 10000000
  produits_encaissables: 100000000
steps:
  profit_is: taxable_profit * 0.30
  percentage_minimum: produits_encaissables * 0.01
  annual_is: max(profit_is, percentage_minimum, 250000)
  is_plus_separate_levy: annual_is + 4000
expected:
  profit_is: 3000000
  percentage_minimum: 1000000
  annual_is: 3000000
  is_plus_separate_levy: 3004000

Low profit, the minimum changes the result. With the same ordinary scope, taxable profit is FCFA 100,000 and produits encaissables FCFA 20 million. Profit IS is 30,000 and the percentage minimum is 200,000; the absolute floor makes IS 250,000. Add the levy separately.

name: Absolute IS floor
inputs:
  taxable_profit: 100000
  produits_encaissables: 20000000
steps:
  profit_is: taxable_profit * 0.30
  percentage_minimum: produits_encaissables * 0.01
  annual_is: max(profit_is, percentage_minimum, 250000)
  is_plus_separate_levy: annual_is + 4000
expected:
  profit_is: 30000
  percentage_minimum: 200000
  annual_is: 250000
  is_plus_separate_levy: 254000

Ask the client first

• What are the legal form, activity, accounting period and start date?
• Are there exemptions, incentives, restructurings or a mining/petroleum convention?
• Which Benin and foreign operations, branches or permanent establishments produced the profit?
• What are taxable profit, each adjustment, produits encaissables and any sector-specific minimum base?
• Which losses, instalments, AIB or other credits are supported and unused?
• Are there distributions, retained earnings, foreign payments or related-party transactions?

Sources

Official source	What was actually read	Read on
DGI official CGI, 2026 edition	Articles 3–6, 8–9, 20, 36, 43–47, 49–52, 86, 101, 142, 145–146, including adjacent conditions in the extracted official text. The cover consolidates the original 2026 finance law, not the June rectifying law.	2026-11-01
Signed law 2026-10 of 24 June 2026	Tax provisions arts. 1–19 and final arts. 48–49, PDF pages 1–6 and 17 visually read; adjacent article 20 heading read. OCR of the whole capture is not a whole-law review.	2026-11-01

Not yet confirmed: complete expense-specific and incentive computations, special-regime regulations/conventions and all credits for a live case; authenticated DGI portal screens, exact field identifiers and payment-confirmation workflow; later instruments not identified by the sources read; application to a particular taxpayer. Independent AI source review closed on 1 November 2026 for the bounded job (see the country README); no accountant has attested to this version. The legacy minimum rate/floor and hydrocarbon band were replaced by the actual statutory rules above; withholding topics moved to the cross-border Guide. The original code is not treated as already incorporating the rectifying law.