Gabon taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents on Gabon-source income only. Gabon operates a self-assessment system, with the Direction Generale des Impots conducting post-filing review. Gabon signed an income tax treaty with Italy (1999) that entered into force 19 December 2025 and generally applies from 1 January 2026, a real, current, dated development.
The Gabonese tax year is the calendar year.
Gabon's headline corporate income tax (CIT) rate is 30% (35% for oil/gas and mining).
The headline personal income tax (PIT) rate is 35% plus 5% complementary tax.
The standard VAT/GST (or equivalent consumption tax) rate is 18%.
An individual has habitual residence in Gabon if they have a house in the country (as owner, tenant, or beneficial occupant) or if their main place of residence is in Gabon. Individuals with habitual residence abroad are taxed only on Gabon-source income. Foreign companies with a permanent establishment in Gabon (which includes, notably, a mine, oil or gas shaft, or quarry - reflecting Gabon's resource-extraction economy) are taxed as local companies; without a PE, a 20% withholding tax applies to Gabon-source income instead.
A non-Gabonese entity has a Gabon permanent establishment through a fixed place of business or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts in Gabon on the entity's behalf, following the OECD Model Treaty definition as applied under Gabonese domestic law and any applicable tax treaty.
There is no specific tax rule under Gabon legislation related to CFCs. Instead, Gabon relies on a general anti-avoidance doctrine under Article 12 of the Tax Code targeting companies dependent on, or controlling, companies outside the CEMAC area: payments, expenses, or advantages granted to third parties without equivalent counterpart - constituting an "abnormal act of management" - are treated as a transfer of profits and subjected to corporate income tax. This covers underpriced/overpriced intercompany purchases and sales, excessive or uncompensated royalty payments, and below-market financing arrangements.
No specific numeric thin capitalization ratio is identified in available sources; interest deductibility appears to be governed by the same Article 12 general anti-avoidance framework described above rather than a standalone ratio-based rule.
Gabon 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. Gabon 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.
Gabon does not provide a broad participation exemption for foreign dividends; relief from double taxation is available primarily through Gabon's foreign tax credit system and its treaty network.
Gabon has a foreign tax credit mechanism for foreign tax paid on foreign-source income also taxed in Gabon, capped at the Gabonese tax otherwise due on that income.
Gabon has approximately 8 double tax agreements per TaxAtlas, with the full picture confirmed and expanded directly via PwC: Gabon has signed and ratified treaties with Belgium, France, the CEMAC member states collectively (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), and the OCAM (African and Malagasy Common Organisation) member states collectively (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Togo). Branch profits repatriated to a company in a treaty country benefit from a reduced 10% withholding rate versus the general 20% rate.