Ghana RTVAT: 20% VAT on Digital Services from October 2026

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) plans to start collecting VAT on cross-border digital services at the point of payment on October 15, 2026, according to local press reports. Under the system, which the GRA calls Real-Time VAT (RTVAT), the customer's bank, mobile money operator, or payment service provider will withhold the tax. It applies when a Ghana-issued card or wallet is used to pay a foreign digital service provider, and the VAT goes straight to the GRA.

The GRA describes RTVAT as a new way of collecting an existing tax. Non-resident suppliers of digital services have been required to register and charge VAT in Ghana since 2022. Until now, collection has depended on foreign suppliers filing on their own; from mid-October, it rests with the institutions that process the payment.

How RTVAT Works

According to a late-September explainer by a technical advisor to the GRA Commissioner-General and later press reporting, RTVAT applies only when three conditions are met. The payment instrument must be issued in Ghana, whether a bank card, a mobile money account, or a digital wallet. The merchant must be non-resident. The service must be supplied electronically, for example, streaming, cloud storage, software subscriptions, online gaming, online advertising, or online marketplace services.

The merchant then shows a VAT-exclusive price, and the customer is charged VAT and levies on top. The customer's bank or mobile money provider withholds the tax and remits it to the GRA through its Sentinal system and the national settlement system, and the customer receives an SMS showing the amount deducted. VAT is reversed automatically on refunds and chargebacks.

Integration is mandatory for banks, payment service providers, electronic money issuers, third-party payment processors, and other licensed entities that handle qualifying transactions.

Legal Basis and Rate

The GRA cites the Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151), which took effect on January 1, 2026, as the basis for RTVAT. It has not cited a specific section or implementing regulations.

The total charge is 20%: VAT at 15%, plus the National Health Insurance Levy and the GETFund Levy at 2.5% each. On a GH¢100 subscription, the customer is debited GH¢120, and the withholding agent remits GH¢20 to the GRA. The 1% COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy was abolished from January 2026 under the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy Repeal Act, 2025. Act 1151 also removed the flat rate schemes, and amendments to the NHIL and GETFund laws made the two levies deductible as input tax on domestic supplies, according to EY.

The GRA's online registration and filing portal for non-resident suppliers of e-commerce opened on April 1, 2022, and the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2022 (Act 1082) extended the registration obligation to digital services later that year. The GRA says there is no registration threshold. Those rules are covered in VAT Compliance for Electronic Services in Ghana: Key Rules & Requirements.

Section 15 of Act 1151 carries the obligation forward. A non-resident supplying telecommunication services or electronic commerce for use or enjoyment in Ghana must register unless it supplies through a VAT-registered agent. Registrants file and pay monthly, by the last day of the following month, and cannot deduct input tax against these supplies.

Where RTVAT and Act 1151 Do Not Line Up

Two parts of the published RTVAT design sit awkwardly with the Act. Section 42(9) treats a digital service as supplied in Ghana when at least two of four indicators are present. The four are a resident recipient, payment through a Ghanaian payment platform or financial institution, a Ghanaian address, an internet proxy address or phone number, and receipt of the service on a terminal in Ghana. RTVAT, as described, turns on one indicator alone: a Ghana-issued payment instrument. A Ghanaian card used by a customer living abroad could therefore still attract withholding. Section 42(11) lets the Commissioner-General issue guidelines on what counts as use of a service, which would be the natural place to resolve this.

The scope also differs. EY notes that Act 1151 broadens the definition of digital services to include software and software updates, remote maintenance of programs and equipment, and virtual and digital asset management services, but excludes online gaming. The GRA's RTVAT explainer nonetheless lists online gaming among the services covered.

Why the GRA Is Moving to the Payment Layer

About 167 non-resident e-commerce businesses are registered with the GRA, contributing roughly GH¢43 million in VAT a month, or an estimated GH¢515 million a year. In May 2026, GRA Commissioner-General Anthony Sarpong said the voluntary approach was not producing results and that, based on 2025 data, an automated system could have raised more than GH¢2.5 billion. He also said a three-month pilot had been completed and that the system would start in August, a date that has since moved to October.

The shortfall on foreign digital services mirrors a wider one. At the launch of a national VAT compliance campaign on September 22, 2026, the GRA said it collects only about 40% of potentially recoverable VAT from its roughly 60,000 active VAT taxpayers. Its VAT Strategic Plan aims to cut the VAT gap from 60% to about 30% by the end of 2028.

Open Questions for Registered Suppliers

Non-resident suppliers that already charge Ghanaian VAT face the most practical uncertainty. The GRA says they must still register and file periodic returns. They should also display prices exclusive of VAT and tell customers that VAT is applied at payment. It also says customers will not pay VAT a second time to the merchant.

The published material does not explain how that works in practice. Suppliers will want to know how VAT withheld by a bank or wallet provider is credited against the VAT reported on their own returns. They will need access to the withholding data to reconcile their filings, and a rule for matching a merchant refund to the payment provider's automatic reversal. Until the GRA publishes guidance, registered suppliers should not assume their current pricing and filing setup will prevent the same sale being taxed twice.

Business purchases carry a separate risk. Under section 61 of Act 1151, a resident person that imports services generally has to declare and pay the VAT itself, within 21 days after the tax period. If a VAT-registered company pays a foreign software provider with a Ghana-issued corporate card, VAT could be withheld at payment and then declared again under section 61. Act 1151 already has a withholding framework: under section 56, once a withholding agent pays withheld VAT to the Commissioner-General, the person whose VAT was withheld can claim it. The GRA has not said whether RTVAT operates under that provision.

Conclusion

RTVAT shifts collection of Ghana's VAT on foreign digital services from the suppliers to the banks and wallet providers that process payment. Nigeria has moved in the same direction: the Nigeria Tax Act allows the Nigeria Revenue Service to appoint digital platforms and payment processors as VAT collection agents for cross-border supplies.

Non-resident suppliers selling to Ghanaian customers should confirm their registration status and check how prices appear at checkout before October 15. They should also ask the GRA, in writing where possible, how withheld VAT will be reflected in their returns. Ghanaian businesses that buy software or cloud services from abroad on corporate cards should keep the SMS records of VAT withheld and raise the Section 61 overlap with the GRA.