In Guinea, the minimum turnover tax corresponds to 3% of company turnover. Compared to other French-speaking African countries, this rate is high, but the amount of the Guinean minimum tax is capped. The Finance Act, 2018, attempted to halve this rate and remove the maximum amount (Act No. 2017-059 of 12 December 2017). However, the Finance Act, 2019, cancelled this measure (Act No. 2018-069 of 26 December 2018). The rate of 3% is reinstated, as well as the minimum and maximum amounts. For medium-sized companies, the minimum tax cannot be less than 15 million Guinean francs, nor more than 45 million. For large companies, these amounts are increasing: the minimum tax cannot be less than 75 million Guinean francs, nor more than 100 million.
Updated tax data for 2019 are now available for Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
In Cote d'Ivoire, the five-year tax holiday from which mining companies benefited in terms of corporate income tax and minimum tax has been repealed (Ordinance No. 2018-144 of 14 February 2018). In South Africa, mining taxation has not changed. In Zimbabwe, the mining royalty rate now varies according to the price of gold (Act No. 7 of 2019).
In Cote d'Ivoire, the tax holiday granted to mining companies was repealed in 2018 (section 1 of Ordinance No. 2018-144 of 14 February 2018). The Mining Act granted holders of mining rights an exemption from corporate income tax and a minimum tax for the first five years following the date of first commercial production (section 169 of Act No. 2014-138 of 24 March 2014). Exceptionally, however, mining rights granted in 2018 benefited from a 75% tax abatement in the first year and 50% in the second year following the date of first commercial production (section 3 of Ordinance No. 2018-144 of 14 February 2018).
In Zimbabwe, gold mining royalty rates were amended by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (No. 7 of 2019). For small-scale gold producers, the rate increases from 1% to 2%. For other gold producers, the rate was 5%, except in the case of an increase in annual production. Now the rate depends on the selling price of the ore. It is set at 3% when the selling price is below 1200$/oz and 5% when the selling price is above 1200$/oz.
Updated tax data for 2019 are now available for Cameroon, Chad and Ghana.
In Cameroon, the Finance Act 2019 did not change mining taxation (Act No. 2018/022 of 11 December 2018). Similarly, in Ghana, there were no changes to mining taxation in 2019. In Chad, the minimum tax was raised from 1 to 2 million CFA francs for large companies (Act No. 037/PR/2018 of 31 December 2018).