Small Business Tax in Cameroon: the Impôt Général Synthétique (2026)
If you run a shop, a workshop, a salon, a bar, a bike-taxi, a farm or a small consultancy in Cameroon, there is one number that decides your tax bill, and it is not your profit. It is your annual turnover — and if that turnover is under 50 million FCFA, you do not file VAT returns, you do not pay patente, and you do not compute income tax on your business profits. You pay a single flat amount once a year: the impôt général synthétique, or IGS.
That is genuinely simpler than what came before. It is also unforgiving, because the amount is fixed in advance by which turnover band you land in, and the bands have some brutal steps in them. Here is how it actually works, taken from the statute itself and from the tax administration's own 2026 circular.
Are you in the IGS regime?
The IGS applies to businesses carrying on a commercial, industrial, artisanal, agropastoral, liberal or non-commercial activity, below a turnover threshold that from 1 January 2026 depends on what kind of work you do:
- 50,000,000 FCFA a year, excluding tax, for commerce, industry, crafts and agropastoral activity;
- 30,000,000 FCFA a year for the liberal professions and other non-commercial activity — lawyers, doctors, tax advisers, consultants.
The lower threshold for professionals is new. Until the 2026 Finance Law there was a single 50 million line for everybody, regardless of activity. A consultant billing 35 million FCFA who was on the IGS in 2025 is on the régime du réel in 2026, with the full apparatus of monthly VAT returns and income-tax instalments that implies.
Some businesses are on the régime du réel no matter how small they are. The tax administration's own summary table names notaries; the petroleum, mining and gas sectors; microfinance institutions (EMF); insurance companies; mobile telephony; firms approved under the July 2025 investment-incentives ordinance; and new taxpayers granted a DGI derogation for an investment or an order above 100 million FCFA.
For everyone else the test is mechanical: an existing business is judged on last year's turnover, and a new one on the forecast turnover it declares when it registers — subject to being put right later. If you are still at the registration stage, our guide to registering a business in Cameroon covers the CFCE route that comes first.
What you actually pay: the ten classes
The IGS is assessed on annual turnover excluding tax, and liquidated according to a fixed scale of ten classes. This is the table as it appears in the law itself:
| Class | Annual turnover (FCFA) | You pay (FCFA) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Under 500,000 | 20,000 |
| 2 | 500,000 to under 1,000,000 | 30,000 |
| 3 | 1,000,000 to under 1,500,000 | 40,000 |
| 4 | 1,500,000 to under 2,000,000 | 50,000 |
| 5 | 2,000,000 to under 2,500,000 | 60,000 |
| 6 | 2,500,000 to under 5,000,000 | 150,000 |
| 7 | 5,000,000 to under 10,000,000 | 300,000 |
| 8 | 10,000,000 to under 20,000,000 | 500,000 |
| 9 | 20,000,000 to under 30,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| 10 | 30,000,000 to under 50,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
There is no exempt class. A trader turning over 300,000 FCFA a year is in class 1 and owes 20,000 FCFA. Several widely-read Cameroonian tax blogs state that class 1 is exempt and put the 20,000 FCFA at class 2 — that is not what Article C 40 says, and believing it is how a small business ends up closed with a penalty on top.
The cliffs are the real story
Because each class is a flat amount, the tax does not rise smoothly with your sales. It jumps. Cross from 2,499,000 FCFA of turnover to 2,500,000 FCFA — one extra sale of a thousand francs — and your annual tax goes from 60,000 to 150,000 FCFA. Cross 5,000,000 and it doubles again. The worst step is at 30,000,000 FCFA, where the bill goes from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 FCFA.
Two practical consequences. First, if you are trading close to the top of a class near the year end, know exactly where the line is. Second, note who carries the heaviest load in proportional terms: at 300,000 FCFA of turnover the 20,000 FCFA charge is about 6.7% of everything you sold, while at 49 million it is about 4%, and at 20 million it is 5%. The IGS is a turnover tax, not a profit tax, so a thin-margin trader can owe it in a year they made nothing.
The half-price rule: joining a CGA
A Centre de Gestion Agréé is an approved bookkeeping and tax-assistance centre, and joining one halves your IGS. Annual membership for an IGS taxpayer is legally capped between 50,000 and 150,000 FCFA — so for anyone in class 8 and above, the halving alone more than covers the subscription.
There is a wrinkle worth raising with your tax centre. Article C 40(2) grants the half tarif to IGS taxpayers "subject to the obligation to keep accounts", which on a plain reading means those turning over 10,000,000 FCFA or more. The tax administration's 2026 circular states the 50% reduction for CGA members on the IGS without repeating that condition. If you are under 10 million and considering a CGA mainly for the discount, get that confirmed in writing before you pay a subscription.
Membership also cuts the contribution des licences — the separate charge on selling drinks, firearms or games — by 50%, applied automatically at assessment provided you and your centre are both on the DGI's active-taxpayer file and you appear on the adherent list published on the DGI website. No paper attestation is required.
What the IGS does not cover
Paying IGS discharges you from patente, VAT and income tax on business, agricultural and non-commercial profits. It does not discharge you from:
- service taxes and charges;
- the contribution des licences;
- taxes withheld at source by the State and other bodies authorised to withhold;
- payroll taxes and employer contributions on your staff;
- registration duties on a lease, and property tax where you own the premises.
If you have employees, you withhold from their pay and remit quarterly alongside your IGS, or monthly by the 15th if you opt for that. What your staff see on their side is set out in our guide to understanding your payslip in Cameroon.
And when you invoice, expect to be withheld from: 2% of the pre-tax amount on invoices to private companies, and 5% on work for the State, local councils and public bodies. Those amounts are not lost — they credit against the IGS you owe for the following year. They cannot be set against a quarterly instalment this year, so budget as though you had not been withheld.
Deadlines, accounts and penalties
The annual IGS return is filed online with your tax centre by 15 April, and payment falls due at the same time. You may instead opt to pay in quarterly instalments, each within 15 days of the end of the quarter, by electronic declaration. You do not file monthly VAT or monthly income-tax instalment returns at all.
If your turnover reaches 10,000,000 FCFA, two further obligations switch on: you must keep accounts under the OHADA Système Minimal de Trésorerie, and you must file a Déclaration Statistique et Fiscale by 15 May each year.
The sanctions are severe and worth stating plainly. Not paying on time brings immediate administrative closure of the business plus a penalty of 50% of the tax due. Failing to produce a valid Attestation de Conformité Fiscale on demand brings closure and a 25,000 FCFA fine — and for street traders and transport operators, seizure of goods or of the vehicle, though the 2026 circular confirms that only vehicles in professional use may be seized, never a strictly private one. Not keeping accounts where you are required to brings closure and a 1,000,000 FCFA fine. Tax debts prescribe after four years.
Moving between regimes
Cross a threshold in a given year and you are reclassified to the régime du réel automatically. That reclassification follows a formal procedure: an avis de passage must be served first, the tax office establishes your real turnover, and the whole thing is closed by a procès-verbal, with an intervention number issued by the Regional Tax Centre. If someone turns up without those, you are entitled to ask.
Coming back down is deliberately slower. A business on the régime du réel whose turnover falls below the thresholds stays on the réel for a two-year probationary period, and only if turnover is still below at the end of it does it return to the IGS.
One boundary case is worth flagging: the statute, the circular's summary of the reform and its regime table all describe the IGS as applying below the threshold, while one passage of the same circular says "does not exceed" it. If your turnover lands exactly on 50,000,000 or 30,000,000 FCFA, ask your tax centre in writing which side of the line you are on rather than assuming.
Frequently asked questions
Is the IGS charged on profit or on sales? On sales — annual turnover excluding tax. Your costs, your stock and your margin make no difference to which class you fall in.
I am a salaried employee with a small side business. Does the IGS cover my salary? No. The IGS is liberatory for your business profits only. Your salary is taxed under IRPP in the ordinary way, and individuals on the IGS still owe the annual personal return. See income tax in Cameroon for how salary is taxed.
I have two shops. Do I pay once or twice? The IGS is due per establishment where you carry on several distinct activities, and if your establishments sit in different tax centres you file with each of them plus a recapitulative return at the centre covering your main establishment.
Should I still register if I am tiny? Yes. Registration obligations apply to IGS taxpayers even where an exemption applies, and the sanction for trading without being in order is closure. Registration is also what makes you fundable — see how to fund a business in Cameroon.
Why do older guides mention an impôt libératoire? Because the framework changed. The law that created the IGS repealed the 2009 local-taxation law outright, and the tax administration's 2026 regime table lists exactly two regimes for a business: the IGS and the régime du réel.
Sources
- Loi n° 2024/020 du 23 décembre 2024 portant fiscalité locale, Articles C 30, C 37, C 38 to C 48, C 144 and C 151 — certified true copy published by the Presidency of the Republic and mirrored by the Direction Générale des Impôts at impots.cm. Read 3 September 2026. Establishes the IGS, its liberatory scope, the ten-class scale and the sanctions.
- Circulaire n° 008/MINFI/DGI/LRI/L du 2 mars 2026, Direction Générale des Impôts, specifying how the 2026 Finance Law applies — sections 1.14 (regimes of assessment), 2.4 (approved management centres) and 6.2 to 6.6 (local taxation and the IGS). Read 3 September 2026. Establishes the dual 50m/30m threshold from 1 January 2026, the 15 April and 15 May deadlines, the 2% and 5% withholding rates, the reclassification rules and the CGA reduction.
- Circulaire conjointe MINFI/MINDEVEL du 4 juillet 2025, cited in the circular above for the obligation on IGS taxpayers to withhold on employee pay.
