Ghana Withholding tax rates
Ghana Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The withholding taxes Ghana levies on payments to non-resident persons - dividends, interest, royalties and natural resource payments, management and technical service fees, and payments for goods, works or services - each at its domestic statutory rate before any double-tax agreement relief. Imposed by the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) sections 115-116 and the First Schedule, administered by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Compare withholding tax rates across all 34 African countries →
| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2015-09-01 |
| Official source | Ghana Revenue Authority - Withholding Tax: non-resident rates table - 'Dividend 8%', 'Interest income 8% (excluding individuals)', 'Royalties, natural resources payments and rents 15%', 'Management and technical service fees 20%', 'Goods, works or any services 20%'; rates fixed by the First Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), as amended |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Ghana withholds at four distinct rates on non-resident payments depending on the payment type. 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. A double-tax agreement can reduce any of them where its conditions (residence, beneficial ownership) are met. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. FINALITY. Under section 116 read with section 118 of Act 896, a payment to a non-resident that is subject to withholding is generally a FINAL withholding payment unless the income is derived through a Ghanaian permanent establishment, in which case the tax withheld is a credit against assessment. SERIES BASIS. The rates are fixed by paragraph 8 of the First Schedule to Act 896 (in force 1 September 2015, since amended repeatedly - Acts 902, 907, 924, 941, 956, 967, 973, 1071 and later - without changing the four non-resident heads served here). The effective_from is the Act's commencement; each rate is stated as currently published by GRA, which does not give a per-rate commencement date, so none is asserted per rate.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/gh/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/gh/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/gh/withholding-taxOther Ghana series: Bank of Ghana monetary policy rate · Statutory interest (C.I. 52) · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · National daily minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Kenya · Lesotho · Mali · Mauritius · Morocco · all 34