Compendium · Africa · Ethiopia
Ethiopia: VAT on digital services
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Not supported by the free-threshold API · Local term: VAT
Last verified: 2026-11-03
Ethiopia taxes non-resident remote/electronic services and electronic distribution platforms under VAT Proclamation 1341/2024 and Council of Ministers Regulation 570/2025 (Amharic Negarit Gazette 17 Mar 2025)
The live free-threshold API has not merged the proposed rules for this place yet. Unverified fields are indicative only
Spot a mistake in Ethiopia’s rules?
Open a public correction issue on Gitea (sign in or create an account). The form is prefilled with this page’s URL and a short template, and asks for the correction label. Accepted corrections become a reviewed diff on the rules dataset — rule fixes belong in botchannels-app, not a silent change on this site.
Threshold and rates (VAT)
- Free threshold?
- Yes — The live free-threshold API has not merged the proposed rules for this place yet. Unverified fields are indicative only
- Amount / measure
- ETB 2
Foreign suppliers of electronically ordered goods, remote services or electronic platforms must register once taxable supplies exceed the ETB 2 million registration threshold - Window
- No threshold window (from the first sale)
- Standard rate
- 15.0%
Remote/electronic taxable supplies are taxed at 15% VAT - Who must register
- —
- Evidence of location
- A remote-service recipient is an Ethiopian resident if at least two of billing address, Ethiopian bank, Ethiopian landline/IMSI, IP/geolocation, or other commercial evidence point to Ethiopia; telecom used only in Ethiopia or with Ethiopian MCC is separately in scope
- Invoicing
- Registered foreign suppliers must issue an electronic invoice/receipt with serial, supplier IDs, recipient, date, description, consideration and VAT — not a full tax invoice
- Filing
- —
- Effective
- Region verify 2026-11-03
- Authority
- Reg 570/2025 Amharic Negarit Gazette
What Botchannels returns
- Ruleset version
2026-10-22.v1- Decision summary
- Botchannels does not open free-threshold sales here. Register (or appoint a representative) before selling.
- Product class
- Digital service
- Support status
- Not supported by the free-threshold API — The live free-threshold API has not merged the proposed rules for this place yet. Unverified fields are indicative only
How to register
- Self-register online?
- See detail — See the authority pages linked in the sources
- Resident representative / fiscal agent
- —
- Regime
- Non-residents register online as foreign suppliers, issue electronic receipts (not tax invoices), file e-returns, and may seek quarterly filing or use a VAT-registered agent
Steps (in order)
- —
Documents
—- Official processing time
- — (unverified)
- Official fees
- —
- Portal
- https://justice.gov.et/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/%E1%8B%B0%E1%8A%95%E1%89%A5-%E1%89%81%e1%8c%a5%e1%88%ad-570-2017.pdf
- Local bank account
- —
- Filing frequency
- —
- Payment currency
- —
- Input VAT recovery
- —
- Portal language
- —
- Penalties
- —
Firms offering this service
No verified provider links for this jurisdiction yet. Prefer the official portal and a locally licensed tax adviser.
Region verify
Facts imported on 2026-11-03. Overall confidence: primary. A field marked indicative is unverified and is not a decision by itself.
| Field | Summary |
|---|---|
| Evidence of customer location | A remote-service recipient is an Ethiopian resident if at least two of billing address, Ethiopian bank, Ethiopian landline/IMSI, IP/geolocation, or other commercial evidence point to Ethiopia; telecom used only in Ethiopia or with Ethiopian MCC is separately in scope (secondary) |
| Digital regime | Ethiopia taxes non-resident remote/electronic services and electronic distribution platforms under VAT Proclamation 1341/2024 and Council of Ministers Regulation 570/2025 (Amharic Negarit Gazette 17 Mar 2025) (primary) |
| Rate | Remote/electronic taxable supplies are taxed at 15% VAT (primary) |
| Foreign registration threshold | Foreign suppliers of electronically ordered goods, remote services or electronic platforms must register once taxable supplies exceed the ETB 2 million registration threshold (primary) |
| Simplified regime | Non-residents register online as foreign suppliers, issue electronic receipts (not tax invoices), file e-returns, and may seek quarterly filing or use a VAT-registered agent (primary) |
| Collect and remit | Platform operators can be deemed suppliers of remote services to Ethiopian residents; underlying non-residents must still register unless supplying through a VAT-registered agent (primary) |
| B2C invoice | Registered foreign suppliers must issue an electronic invoice/receipt with serial, supplier IDs, recipient, date, description, consideration and VAT — not a full tax invoice (primary) |
| Local payment methods | An Ethiopian bank account counts toward the two-indicator residency test for remote services (secondary) |
| IP, VPN, or datacenter | IP or other geolocation indicating Ethiopia is one of the residency indicators and alone is never enough (needs a second indicator) (secondary) |
| Private seller selling to a business | Domestic and foreign registration use the ETB 2 million taxable-supplies threshold (primary) |
| Bookkeeping retention | Foreign suppliers may store VAT documents abroad but must produce them by the date in a Tax Authority written notice (primary) |
| AML triggers | No AML trigger found (indicative, unverified) |
Official sources
Reg 570/2025 Amharic Negarit Gazette
Proc 1341 Art.24 2-of-N summary
Last verified: 2026-11-03.
FAQ
- Is this tax advice?
- No. This page summarises region-verify notes for foreign digital sellers. It is not tax or legal advice