Consumers in Ghana will begin paying a combined effective tax rate of 20% on qualifying cross-border digital services from Thursday, October 15, 2026, under the country’s revised Value Added Tax (VAT) regime.
The tax comprises 15% VAT, 2.5% National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) and 2.5% Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Levy.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has directed that the taxes be collected on qualifying digital services supplied by non-resident providers, with banks and payment service providers expected to facilitate automatic collection at the point of payment.
The measure is expected to affect subscriptions and payments for digital media, entertainment platforms, software, cloud computing, online gaming, digital advertising, social media and communication services, online travel and hospitality platforms, and security and virtual private network (VPN) services.
Affected platforms include Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Showmax, beIN Sports, Microsoft, Adobe, Zoom, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Steam, Roblox, Coursera, Udemy, Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn, Booking.com, Agoda, Uber, Bolt, McAfee and NordVPN.
ChatGPT and other qualifying digital services provided by foreign companies may also fall within the scope of the tax.
The implementation is intended to facilitate the collection of applicable taxes on cross-border digital transactions under Ghana’s VAT framework, including the Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151).
Meanwhile, some banks have begun notifying customers about the impending application of the tax to qualifying digital service transactions.
In a customer notice, one bank said customers using its debit cards to pay for qualifying services would have the 20% tax included in the total amount payable.
The bank clarified that the tax was a statutory levy applicable to qualifying digital service transactions and not a fee or charge imposed by the bank.
