Namibia Withholding tax rates
Namibia 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 11 Aug 2026.
Namibian domestic statutory withholding taxes on payments to non-residents under the Income Tax Act 24 of 1981 (as amended), administered by the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA): Non-Resident Shareholders' Tax (NRST) on dividends (two-tier 10%/20%), withholding tax on interest paid to non-residents, withholding tax on royalties, and withholding tax on services (management/consultancy vs directors'/entertainment fees).
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2016-06-21 |
| Official source | NamRA brochure 'Withholding Tax on Services' (covers all four withholding taxes): 'NRST rate is 10% if the beneficial shareholding company holds at least 25% of the capital and 20% of the amount in all other cases'; 'A person who pays interest to a non-resident is required to withhold tax at a rate of 10%'; 'required to withhold tax on royalties at a rate of 10%'; services 'withhold tax at a rate of 10% or 25%'. Corroborated by PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Namibia — Withholding taxes (last reviewed 16 July 2026). |
| Last verified | 2026-08-11 |
| 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. Namibia applies different statutory rates by payment type — NRST on dividends is two-tier (10% where the beneficial shareholder is a company holding at least 25% of the capital, 20% in all other cases), interest to non-residents 10%, royalties 10%, management/consultancy fees 10%, and directors' fees and entertainment fees 25% — so 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 (Namibia has a modest treaty network; NamRA and PwC both note NRST in particular may be reduced under a DTA, while PwC notes no treaty relief is available for the 25% directors'/entertainers' rate). We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, depend on the recipient's residence, beneficial ownership and the specific treaty article, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. Country-specific caveats. (1) NRST is two-tier: the 10% rate requires the beneficial shareholder to be a COMPANY holding at least 25% of the capital; individuals and sub-25% corporate shareholders pay 20%. (2) Royalties were historically taxed at an effective 10.5% (33 1/3% of the royalty deemed income taxed at the then 32%/31.5% non-resident rate, i.e. approximately 10.5%); the Income Tax Amendment Act 13 of 2015 replaced this with a flat 10% final withholding tax and simultaneously introduced the 10% withholding tax on interest paid to non-residents, both with effect from 30 December 2015. (3) The services withholding tax (s 35A, introduced 2011 at 25%) was reduced to 10% for management/consultancy fees with effect from 21 June 2016 (Income Tax Amendment Act 4 of 2016); directors' fees and entertainment fees remained at 25% — hence NamRA's operative wording '10% or 25%'. (4) 2024/2025 amendments verified: the Income Tax Amendment Act 4 of 2024 (gazetted 16 September 2024, effective retroactively 1 March 2024) changed only individual income-tax brackets (tax-free threshold N$50,000 to N$100,000) and did NOT touch NRST or any withholding tax; PwC's significant-developments page (reviewed July 2026) lists no enacted or proposed changes to NRST, interest, royalty or services withholding for 2025/2026 (pending proposals concern preference-share anti-avoidance, a tax court, and VAT on imported digital services). (5) Separately from the non-resident regime, 10% WHT also applies to interest paid by Namibian registered banks and unit trusts to residents other than Namibian companies. All withholding taxes above are due within 20 days after the end of the month in which the amount was withheld. CITATION UPGRADE (11 August 2026): the 25% on non-resident directors' fees and entertainment fees was previously carried on PwC, because the NamRA 'Withholding Tax on Services' brochure states only the composite 'a rate of 10% or 25%' and never says which fee attracts which tier. The split is now cited to the charging provision itself - s. 35A(3)(a)-(b) of the Income Tax Act 24 of 1981, which puts management and consultancy fees at 10% and directors' and entertainment fees at 25% in the same subsection - read from the consolidated Act that NamRA publishes on its own site (legislation as at 16 September 2024; the consolidation is prepared by Laws.Africa and published by the revenue authority). The same provision independently corroborates the 10% already served for management/consultancy fees at withholding_rates[4]. Values unchanged.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/na/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/na/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/na/withholding-taxOther Namibia series: Bank of Namibia Repo rate · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate (non-mining) · Prescribed rate of interest (mora interest) · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Niger · Nigeria · Republic of the Congo · Rwanda · Senegal · all 34