PROCEDURE TO OBTAIN A BUSINESS LICENSE IN CAMEROON
This article explains the procedure to obtain a business license in Cameroon. Business License is an official legal document issued by is government through the directorate of taxes with its sub divisional, divisional, medium-size taxpayer and regional
tax centres to business owner(s) granting them authorization to carry out their economic activities within the territorial boundary of
the country of Cameroon. It is a fiscal document and it is valid within
a fiscal year of 12months that is 1st of January to 31st of December,
renewed annually. This implies that regardless of the time of
business registration, the said business licenses expire as at 315t
December of the year obtained.
With the inconsistency in compliance, the government has refined and renamed the business licenses to Attestation of Non-Indebtedness. This document is issued ONLY after completion of monthly declaration and other related taxes with validity of three (3) months and authenticated by the stamp and signature of the chief of
Centre at taxation.
It should be noted that business license is restricted to the activities listed on the business registration and any addition of unlisted activity requires the notification of the chief of centre at taxation.
Also, business license is restricted within a tax centre, any opening of a branch office in another tax zone will require a new business license.
With the advent of technology, business license renewal has been made easy as taxpayers/ business consultants can compute, declare, pay and print their attestation of non-indebtedness online without necessarily visiting the tax centre. In this section, the book will help you have a complete understanding and how to compute the taxes involved in business license renewal including the step-by-step procedures to fill and submit business license declaration online for both simplified taxpayers and CIME taxpayers. In summary, we will simplify the business license renewal process into:
1. Taxes and Computation
2. Filling & Declaration Online
3. Printing of Business License
However, for better understanding, we will have reach process
separately for both Simplified and CIME Taxpayers
TAXES AND COMPUTATION
Business license renewal requires compliance with some principal taxes and this requires the taxpayers to prepared a statistical on its tax returns with accompanied notes and statements before proceedings to filling and declaration. The principal taxes to be paid include:
1. Business License tax (tax on declared turnover)
2. Tax on Rent
3. Land Tax
4. Balance Tax
These are principal taxes to be filled and paid for business renewal, however, other taxes may be included depending on the economic activities of the tax payer. For example, liquor license tax to be paid by all taxpayer involved in the commercialization of soft and alcoholic drinks. To ease our understanding, let’s examine the different taxes and see how they are computed:
1. Business License tax:
This is tax paid on the turnover of the business. The business turnover serves as the tax base and the it can be gotten from the sum of all taxable revenue stated with the statistical tax returns report submitted by the taxpayer.
Computation
Business license tax is calculated based on a range of tax rates vis-à-vis a range of tax base (turnovers). Thanks to the online system, this process had been made really easy. Therefore, in order to calculated business tax, the taxpayer must provide an STR to show his turnover. This will enable the system generate the amount to be paid as tax. To further simplified the process, apply the following:
* For turnover hollow 10,000,000fcfa, the tax base is 10,000,000
* For turnover above 10,000,000fcfa, the tax base is the realized turnover for the fiscal year.
2. Tax on Rent or Land Tax:
Tax on rent is paid as a result of renting a property be it land or building or both for commercial purposed. Thi36s tax is borne by both the tenant (who is the taxpayer) and the Landlord of the tenant’s business premise. The tax rate is 25% annually and the tax based is the annual rent of the taxpayer’s business premise.
The tax on rent is further divided into PTS at 10% and Lease at 15% of the tax based respectively.
Computation
Assuming a monthly rent of 20,000fcfa implies annual rent 240,000 (20,000 x 12months). Therefore;
PTS (10%)
= 10% x 240,000 = 24,000fcfa
Lease (15%):
=15% × 240,000
=36,000fcfa
In conclusion: tax on rent is PTS + Lease = 60,000fcfa
3. Land Tax:
Land tax is tax paid on using privately owned property for commercial purposes. Its yearly paid tax and has another implication when it comes to property tax. In this case our focus is on how it affects our business license and who is liable for it.
Land tax is paid by taxpayer who uses their own property for commercial purpose. It implies that they don’t paid tax on rent and taxpayers who pays tax on rent don’t have to paid land tax.
That tax rate and tax base for this is tax is 0.1% and the value of land and building respectively and its paid annually
Computation
Tax rate: 0.1%
Tax based: (value of land plus value of Building)
Value of land =5,000,000fcfa
Value of Building: = 15,000,000fca
Therefore, tax based: 20,000,000fcfa
Implying Land tax: 0.1% of 20,000,000fcfa
4. Balance Tax (SOLDE)
Its obvious that not all revenue within the tax period and some revenues earned usually comes in after the tax period for that month and thus it gives way to an amount of undeclared revenue which warrants calculation of balance tax. For tax rate for balance tax calculation is 5.5% and 2.2% for simplified and actual regime respectively. And the tax based remains the undeclared revenue for
both taxpayers.
Computation;
The tax rate is 5.5% for simplified and 2.2% for actual regime
The tax based is = actual turnover minus declared turnover.
So, with just a simple calculation, a taxpayer can determine how much is to be paid as sold. This amount can also be obtained from the annual statistical tax returns report.
Example:
Company xyz operates a general commerce business and declares her tax monthly. For the year 2021, the actual turnover was 5,0000,0000fcfa, he pays rent of 25,000montly and also has an undeclare tax of 1,300,000. Calculate the taxpayer’s business license for the year, 2022.
Once you are done, move straight ahead to fill and declare your business license.
B. FILLING AND DECLARING BUSINESS LICENSE
Gone are those days when taxpayer will spend long hours and days at tax centre filing for business license. Giving the huddles and the advent of technology the government has introduce the online portal for everything to be handle at a click. In this section we will see the step-by-step process to
Fill and declare for business license can be found on www.imports.cm
DOCUMENTS AFTER DECLARATION
Once you are done and submitted your declaration, the following documents are to be printed out to proceed with payment.
1. Tax Notice (avis d’impositions)
2. Declaration receipt (afficher la declaration) mostly for CIME
3. Tax Receipt (afficher la quittance) after payment is done.
GENERATING YOUR BUSINESS LICENSE
Business license can only be generated after the taxpayer have filled, submit and pay the full amount. For new taxpayers this section needs to be activated by the chief of taxation at their tax centre before they can access the generating platform in their account. So, first timers’ taxpayer should notify their tax centres after payment with proof of payment receipt.
