Togo Cross-border and 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 Togolese debtor pays abroad, a person moves residence, an enterprise trades through a foreign operation or a distribution crosses a border. Individual domicile follows the CGI art. 3 tests and residents are taxed on worldwide income subject to conventions; nonresidents have Togolese-source and habitation rules. Corporate territorial scope is a separate test. CGI arts. 2-3, 64-69; LF2026 art. 21, CGI art. 95. No generic 183-day exception is established by those domestic provisions.

Rates, bands and thresholds

Item and conditions	2026 rule	Official source
Specified nonresident noncommercial, IP and service payments under LPF art. 98	20% of gross, subject to conventions and the article's recipient/no permanent professional installation conditions	LPF art. 98
Ordinary dividends	13%; approved UEMOA listed distribution: corporate recipient 7%, individual 3%; conditional Togo parent/subsidiary exclusion	CGI art. 79
Fixed-income investment receipts, corporate recipients	Ordinarily 6%; qualifying public-entity bonds of 5-10 years 3%, over 10 years 0%; bond disposal gains 3%	CGI art. 80
Fixed-income investment receipts, individuals	13%, subject to the statutory finality/business-income conditions	CGI arts. 79-80
Specified resident noncommercial/intermediary service withholding	3% with valid attestation de régularité fiscale, 5% with NIF, 20% otherwise; statutory DGE dispensation where applicable	LPF art. 99
Construction/assembly/installation/supervision PE	More than three months under 2026 domestic law; separate treaty test required	LF2026 art. 21, CGI art. 95(2)(i)

The base

First identify the legal payment category, recipient type, domicile and any permanent professional installation; inspect the contract and where the service is provided or used. LPF art. 98 covers its specified noncommercial, intellectual-property and service payments by a Togolese debtor, and expressly refers to services supplied or used in Togo or outside Togo. Do not narrow it to an unsupported “offshore work is exempt” assumption, or extend it to every foreign goods purchase. The withholding is creditable against annual IRPP but not refundable under that article; it is not stated as universally final. LPF art. 98.

The dividend exclusion between qualifying Togo parent/subsidiary companies depends on art. 107. For the parent-profit deduction, the parent must be a share company or SARL seated in Togo; the subsidiary must have a specified company form and its seat in Togo or an ECOWAS state. Shares must be registered/deposited, owned outright and represent at least 10% except the qualifying merger-contribution exception; original subscription or a written two-year retention commitment is required. Gross participation income is deducted less a 5% expense share capped by actual expenses. A foreign subsidiary's eligibility for this profit deduction does not automatically establish a Togolese withholding exemption on its distribution. CGI arts. 79, 107.

For individual moves, arrival-based taxation of income brought into charge by domicile starts on the domicile establishment day. Departure brings income to the departure date, post-year-end business profits and accrued undisposed income into the art. 68 computation. A nonresident with a Togo dwelling has a minimum base of three times real rental value unless Togolese-source income is greater; the exception for Togolese nationals requires proof of foreign personal tax on all income. CGI arts. 64-68.

Deadlines and filing

LPF art. 98 withholding is paid to the competent tax receiver during the month after the taxable payment, against a receipt; give the recipient an individual withholding certificate. The resident LPF art. 99 deduction is instead due by the 15th of the following month, with its supplier particulars and certificates. Do not replace the art. 98 wording with that separate resident deadline. LPF arts. 98-99.

Before payment: obtain recipient identity and domicile evidence, classify the payment, examine any permanent establishment and the actual treaty, compute gross liability, record the withheld amount and certificate, then reconcile to the prescribed OTR declaration and payment receipt. Current fields and online submission steps, and the investment-withholding remittance calendar, remain unconfirmed in this Guide.

For a departure, CGI art. 68 requires the provisional income declaration in the 30 days preceding the passport request, with correction through the first two months of the following year; LPF art. 42 also names visa requests. Article 127 contains fiscal-clearance requirements for departures. These are the statutory text, not proof of current border practice. Nonresident annual-return time extensions cannot exceed 30 June under LPF art. 42. CGI arts. 68, 127; LPF art. 42.

Penalties and interest

Late payment ordinarily incurs 10% for the first month and a further 1% for each month or part after the first, with a minimum of CFA 1,000. The rule also covers withholding and instalments. Do not add the separate LPF art. 116 surcharge to the art. 115 penalty. LPF arts. 109, 115-116. Late-result fines depend on the taxpayer segment; nil and VAT-credit returns are not exempt from sanctions. LPF art. 113. Failure to withhold or remit can also trigger the specific withholding sanctions. Classify the breach before applying a general penalty or assuming sanctions accumulate. LPF arts. 109, 128-135.

Cross-border points

The domestic art. 95 PE rule includes fixed places, dependent agents, insurance and electronic-platform facts as well as the construction duration rule. The exceptions for mere storage, display, processing, advertising and preparatory/auxiliary activity are conditional, and independent agents must act in their ordinary business. A project's duration alone does not settle the whole PE question. LF2026 art. 21, replacement CGI art. 95.

Treaty existence, entry into force, covered taxes, beneficial entitlement and relief procedure require the actual official instrument. No treaty-rate list or automatic foreign-tax-credit calculation is supplied. VAT territoriality and foreign representatives remain in VAT; related-party pricing is in Transfer pricing.

Two worked examples that recompute

A documented payment falls within LPF art. 98, the recipient has no relevant permanent professional installation and no verified convention reduces the domestic deduction. A CFA 1 million gross contract yields CFA 200,000 withholding and CFA 800,000 cash to the supplier. The withholding certificate tracks the gross amount and credit; the example does not assume final-tax treatment.

name: Gross contractual fee under domestic withholding
inputs:
  gross_fee: 1000000
steps:
  - withheld: gross_fee*0.20
  - cash_to_supplier: gross_fee-withheld
expected:
  withheld: 200000
  cash_to_supplier: 800000

For the same qualifying payment, a genuine net-of-Togo-tax promise of CFA 1 million requires a gross fee of CFA 1.25 million and withholding of CFA 250,000. The additional payer cost is CFA 250,000. Compare this with a gross-fee contract before agreeing the commercial terms; do not silently gross up a contract that has no net promise.

name: Gross versus net contract decision
inputs:
  promised_net: 1000000
steps:
  - grossed_fee: promised_net/(1-0.20)
  - withheld: grossed_fee*0.20
  - extra_cost: grossed_fee-promised_net
expected:
  grossed_fee: 1250000
  withheld: 250000
  extra_cost: 250000

Ask the client first

Obtain gross/net contract wording, legal payment category, recipient entity and tax residence, professional installation and PE facts, actual service execution/use, group ownership, share-acquisition dates and holding commitments, tax-clearance/NIF certificates, residence movements, dwelling rental values and withholding receipts. For relief obtain the actual treaty and its effective-date/procedural evidence.

Sources

Source and actual read scope	URL	Read on
CGI (loi n°2018-024) and LPF (loi n°2018-025), OTR consolidation 2025, archived official copy. Relevant articles specified above, including neighbouring conditions; actual read scopes in the source manifest. Official live download returned 404 after site migration. Current-year archived OTR PDF read locally.	https://web.archive.org/web/20260702000000id_/https://www.otr.tg/index.php/fr/documentation/sur-les-impots/code-general-des-impots/600-code-general-des-impots-livre-des-procedures-fiscales-mis-a-jour-2025/file.html	2026-11-01
Loi n°2025-002 du 31 décembre 2025, finances 2026. Art. 2 and fiscal provisions arts. 7-21, especially the replacement CGI/LPF text in art. 21; scanned PDF read using local OCR with material provisions checked against page images.	https://finances.gouv.tg/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Loi-de-finances-de-lannee-exercice-2026.pdf	2026-11-01

Not yet confirmed: Current operative treaty texts and rates, residence/beneficial-owner relief forms and refund mechanics; investment withholding remittance forms and dates; live OTR withholding screens; administrative implementation of departure/passport/visa clearance; foreign-tax-credit computations. The old 5%/10% resident royalty simplification and general final nonresident-tax claim are not applied. XB remains partial.