Cameroon taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents on Cameroon-source income only. Cameroon operates a self-assessment system for corporate tax, with the domestic tax authority conducting post-filing review.
The Cameroonian tax year is the calendar year.
Cameroon's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 33%.
The headline personal income tax (PIT) rate is 38.5%.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 19.25%.
Both resident and non-resident companies are subject to Cameroon's General Tax Code, with revenue earned abroad by Cameroon-domiciled corporate bodies subject to Cameroonian CIT as a matter of both fact and law. Standard CIT is 30% plus a 10% additional council tax (33% combined). Interest, dividends, and similar payments to beneficiaries in a "tax haven" jurisdiction (defined as any state taxing income at less than one-third of Cameroon's rate, or deemed non-cooperative on transparency/information exchange) face a punitive 33% withholding rate.
A non-Cameroon-resident entity has a Cameroon permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Cameroon on the entity's behalf, following the OECD Model Treaty definition as applied under Cameroon's domestic law and any applicable tax treaty.
No CFC-style attribution provision was found in Cameroon's General Tax Code. This is a transfer-pricing reallocation mechanism applying to both individuals and corporate entities that are Cameroonian taxpayers, not a CFC regime attributing a foreign subsidiary's own undistributed profits to a Cameroon parent - a distinction PwC's summary compresses into "no special provisions for CFCs" without explaining what mechanism actually governs this space, corroborated here directly against the primary statute.
Interest deductibility on funds provided by partners/related companies holding 25% or more (directly or indirectly) of share capital or voting rights is capped at 25% of profit before corporate tax and before deducting the interest and amortization in question; interest on any excess is non-deductible. The deduction requires a written, duly registered loan agreement and fully paid-up subscribed share capital. From January 1, 2025, fees paid to non-CEMAC accounting/tax service providers are non-deductible (subject to applicable DTTs).
Cameroon does not use an elective check-the-box classification system; entity classification generally follows the entity's actual legal characteristics under the French-derived legal tradition shared across the region. Cameroon does not have a comprehensive ATAD2-style anti-hybrid regime.
No foreign bank account or foreign financial asset reporting regime exists requiring residents to separately disclose foreign accounts; foreign income is reported through the standard annual tax return.
Cameroon does not provide a broad participation exemption for foreign dividends in the European sense, consistent with the transfer-pricing-focused (rather than exemption-focused) anti-avoidance framework already confirmed elsewhere on this page; relief from double taxation is available primarily through Cameroon's foreign tax credit system where one exists.
Cameroon has a foreign tax credit mechanism for foreign tax paid on foreign-source income also taxed domestically, capped at the domestic tax otherwise due on that income - confirm current specific provisions directly given limited public documentation of this area for Cameroon.
Cameroon has tax treaties with Canada, France, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, and the UAE, plus the CEMAC regional framework (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Republic of Congo).