Burkina Faso VAT registration threshold

What this value means

PERIOD BASIS: Annual chiffre d'affaires HORS TAXES (HT, i.e. VAT-exclusive), single figure for all activities — no separate goods vs services thresholds. The test is on the current year's turnover: for businesses starting mid-year the 50m seuil is pro-rated to the operating period (art. 527 al. 2); an RSI taxpayer that crosses 50m in-year suffers immediate caducité of the RSI regime and must notify the administration within 30 days (art. 529), i.e. entry into RNI/VAT is not deferred to the following year. Asymmetric exit: a taxpayer whose HT turnover falls below 50m only drops back to RSI after remaining below the seuil for three consecutive years (art. 527 al. 3), so VAT status is sticky downwards. NON-ESTABLISHED SUPPLIERS: Nil threshold in practice. CGI art. 302: « Lorsqu'un redevable n'est pas domicilié au Burkina Faso, il doit faire accréditer auprès d'un service des impôts un représentant domicilié au Burkina Faso qui s'engage à remplir les formalités incombant à ce redevable et à acquitter la taxe à sa place. À défaut, la taxe et le cas échéant les pénalités, sont exigées de la personne destinataire de l'opération imposable. » (A redevable not domiciled in Burkina Faso must accredit a locally domiciled representative who undertakes the formalities and pays the tax in its place; failing that, the tax and any penalties are demanded from the RECIPIENT of the taxable transaction — a reverse-charge-like customer liability.) Territoriality (arts. 303-305): operations carried out in Burkina Faso are taxable even where the redevable's domicile or siège is abroad; services are taxable where performed or used in Burkina Faso. IMPORTED DIGITAL SERVICES: Yes, addressed from 2025. The Loi de finances 2025 (adopted by the ALT on 23 December 2024, in force 2025-01-01) expressly subjects to VAT « les opérations effectuées sur le territoire burkinabè à travers les plateformes de commerce électronique étrangères et locales... ventes de biens, prestations de services, commissions perçues par les opérateurs desdites plateformes », making the PLATFORM OPERATORS responsible for collecting, declaring and remitting the VAT (covers e.g. VOD/streaming and online marketplaces). No specific registration threshold and no dedicated simplified non-resident e-registration portal had been published as of mid-2026 — compliance for foreign platforms runs through the art. 302 fiscal-representative route, and implementing guidance was still awaited. The Loi de finances 2026 tightened collection mechanics only (VAT retenue à la source raised from 20% to 30%; 30% VAT advance), without touching thresholds. Note also mandatory e-invoicing (facture normalisée électronique) from 1 July 2026 for residents with taxable supplies above XOF 50m — same population as the VAT net. Traps: (1) WAEMU/UEMOA frame — Directive n°02/98/CM/UEMOA as amended by Directive n°02/2009/CM/UEMOA lets member states set the VAT threshold within bands (historically 30-100m FCFA for goods, 15-50m for services); the national CGI figure is the operative one, and Burkina Faso chose a SINGLE 50m seuil for all activities rather than a goods/services pair. (2) Régime-boundary character — 50m is not a VAT-only registration line but the boundary of the whole régime réel normal: below it sit the RSI (15m-<50m, art. 529, amended by Loi n°029-2022/ALT) and the CME synthetic regime (<15m, art. 533, split at 5m into régime déclaratif and régime du forfait, arts. 533-1/533-2), and NEITHER RSI nor CME taxpayers may charge VAT (DGI: « Seuls les contribuables relevant du régime du réel normal d'imposition sont habilités à facturer la TVA »); crossing 50m therefore changes income-tax, accounting (full SYSCOHADA) and invoicing obligations, not just VAT. Voluntary route into VAT exists: RSI taxpayers may opt into RNI before 1 February each year (art. 530 — conditions include being tax-compliant, SYSCOHADA books, facture normalisée, and a signed undertaking to declare and pay VAT; option irrevocable 3 years), and art. 301 gives a separate irrevocable VAT option to farmers/breeders/foresters/fishers regardless of turnover and to road-transport operators under réel normal. (3) Professions libérales — art. 534 excludes them from the CME whatever their legal form, so they always fall under a réel regime (RSI or RNI by turnover); but note this does NOT make them VAT-liable below 50m — art. 300 keys VAT to réel NORMAL only, so a profession libérale at, say, 30m CA is in RSI and cannot charge VAT unless it opts under art. 530. (4) Goods/services split — none in Burkina Faso: one 50m HT threshold for all activities (unlike neighbours using the UEMOA dual bands); also do not confuse the 50m VAT/RNI line with the 15m RSI floor or the 5m CME-forfait line. Continuity check: figure verified in the official DGI CGI-2023 consolidation (arts. 300/527 unannotated, i.e. unchanged since Loi n°058-2017/AN); LF 2024-2026 summaries and the July-2026 e-invoicing scope (XOF 50m) confirm the seuil had not moved as of August 2026.

Get it programmatically

curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bf/vat-registration-threshold
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bf/vat-registration-threshold/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/bf/vat-registration-threshold

Other Burkina Faso series: Policy rate (BCEAO taux minimum de soumission) · Value added tax (Taxe sur la valeur ajoutee - TVA) · Minimum wage (SMIG - salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti) · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (IHPC, glissement annuel) · Corporate income tax (Impot sur les societes - IS) · Withholding tax rates · Statutory interest (taux de l'intérêt légal) · Personal income tax on employment income (IUTS) · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Cameroon · Central African Republic · Chad · Côte d'Ivoire · Democratic Republic of the Congo · all 34