Ethiopia Withholding tax rates
Ethiopia Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The 4 withholding taxes held run from 10% to 15%, cited to Federal Income Tax Proclamation No. 979/2016 as amended by Income Tax (Amendment) Proclamation No. 1395/2025 (enacted 17 July 2025, provisions effective from 8 July 2025); rates cross-checked against PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, in force since 8 Jul 2025. Last checked against the official source on 26 Aug 2026.
Official source: Federal Income Tax Proclamation No. 979/2016 as amended by Income Tax (Amendment) Proclamation No. 1395/2025 · Last checked 2026-08-26 · source fingerprint
The withholding taxes Ethiopia levies on Ethiopian-source payments to non-residents - dividends, interest, royalties and management/technical fees - under the Federal Income Tax Proclamation No. 979/2016 as amended by the Income Tax (Amendment) Proclamation No. 1395/2025, at domestic statutory rates before any double-tax agreement relief. Administered by the Ministry of Revenues.
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| Current value | 10–15% across 4 withholding taxes — no single rate |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2025-07-08 |
| Official source | Federal Income Tax Proclamation No. 979/2016 as amended by Income Tax (Amendment) Proclamation No. 1395/2025 (enacted 17 July 2025, provisions effective from 8 July 2025); rates cross-checked against PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries - Ethiopia (last reviewed 15 July 2026): dividends 15%, interest 10%, royalties 10%, management/technical fees 15%, repatriated branch profits 15% |
| Last verified | 2026-08-26 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. The controlling instrument is Amendment Proclamation 1395/2025 in the Federal Negarit Gazette; the English PDF in circulation is a scan whose text layer is too degraded to quote operative words cleanly (fragments confirm the new dividend 15%, interest 10% and royalty 10% articles and the 15% repatriated-profit article). Rates served follow the concordant reading of PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (reviewed 15 July 2026, post-amendment), Chambers and law-firm analyses of Proclamation 1395/2025. Official Federal Negarit Gazette PDF of Proclamation 1395/2017 (justice.gov.et, HTTP 200 on 2026-08-26) quotes dividend 15%, interest 10%, royalty 10%, and management/technical fee 15% in English; citation upgraded to that gazette text. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Ethiopia rates each head of payment separately (10% and 15% across the four heads). A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. Ethiopia's double-tax agreements can reduce them; applying a treaty rate is a legal determination rather than a lookup, so we do NOT serve treaty rates. THE 2025 REFORM CHANGED THESE RATES: Amendment Proclamation No. 1395/2025 (effective 8 July 2025; domestic-payment withholding from 7 August 2025) raised dividends from 10% to 15% and royalties from 5% to 10%, set interest at 10%, raised the tax on repatriated profits of a non-resident's permanent establishment from 10% to 15%, and renumbered the operative articles of Proclamation 979/2016 (the old royalty/dividend/interest Articles 54-56 are now Articles 56-58). Pre-amendment figures still circulating (10% dividends, 5% royalties, 5% saving-deposit interest under old Article 51) are STALE. Whether the old 5% concession for interest on saving deposits at financial institutions survived the amendment is not clearly stated in available sources; PwC's post-amendment table shows only the 10% general interest rate. Ethiopia also withholds on non-resident insurance premiums and on non-resident entertainers, outside the four heads served here.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/et/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/et/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/et/withholding-taxOther Ethiopia series: NBE National Bank Rate (policy rate) · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage (none in force) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Legal interest / interest for default · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Gabon · Ghana · Kenya · Lesotho · Mali · all 34