Banks in Ghana will begin collecting a 20% tax on payments for Netflix, Spotify, ChatGPT and other foreign digital services on Thursday, October 15.
It is not a new tax, as Ghana has required foreign digital providers to charge VAT since 2022. What changes is who collects it. Banks, mobile money operators and payment firms will now deduct the tax at the point of payment and pass it to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The 20% is made up of 15% VAT, a 2.5% National Health Insurance Levy and a 2.5% GETFund Levy. It applies when the payment is made with a Ghana-issued card, mobile money account, or digital wallet, the seller is a non-resident business, and the service is supplied electronically.
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The scope includes streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, Disney+ and Showmax. It also lists Microsoft 365, Adobe, Zoom, Google Workspace and ChatGPT. Cloud platforms, ads on Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, online learning, gaming, VPNs and travel bookings may also attract the tax. Registered and unregistered foreign providers are both in scope.
Some payments fall outside the real-time net, such as SWIFT transfers, cards issued outside Ghana, cryptocurrency, gift cards, and certain corporate invoicing. The GRA says that doesn’t exempt them. Reverse charge and other mechanisms may still apply.
Local payments are untouched. So is free use of Facebook or WhatsApp. Some banks have warned customers that the charge is a statutory obligation, not a bank fee, Citi Newsroom reports.
The GRA says it has a collection gap. About 167 non-resident e-commerce firms are registered with it. They bring in roughly GH¢43 million a month, or an estimated GH¢515 million a year. Commissioner-General Anthony Sarpong has said 2025 data suggests the system could have raised more than GH¢2.5 billion that year.
The plan is not new. In May, Sarpong said the GRA would deduct VAT from online payments from August, after a three-month pilot. The start slipped to October 15. At the same forum, he said only about four of roughly ten business categories the GRA had identified were charging VAT.
The GRA has branded 2026 its Year of Compliance. Its argument is fairness. Local digital businesses already charge VAT, so foreign ones should too.