VAT on Foreign Digital Services in Senegal 2026: Netflix, B2B SaaS, Google Ads - Who Must Report & How?

The verdict in three sentences

Since the 2022 Finance Law, Senegal's 18% VAT applies to foreign digital services. For B2C (Netflix, Spotify, Google, Meta), the provider collects and remits automatically. For B2B, it is up to you, the buying company, to apply the reverse charge and report it on line 32 of the CA7 form: an oversight affecting about 85% of Dakar tech SMEs.

Who collects, who reports?

The rule depends on the nature of the service and the buyer's status. The trap is not Netflix: it is your professional SaaS subscriptions.

The reverse charge is cash-neutral for a VAT-registered buyer: you declare output VAT (line 32) and deduct it as input the same month. But not declaring it at all exposes you to a reassessment.

The real cost and penalties

The issue is not the VAT amount itself, often modest, but the penalty in case of an audit. Here are concrete examples of common subscriptions.

The penalty combines a 25% surcharge on the evaded amount plus 1.5% per month of delay. Over two undeclared years, interest alone adds 36% to the principal.

Mini case study

Awa runs a digital agency in Dakar. Each month she pays Figma (25,000), Notion (18,000), Shopify (30,000) and Google Ads (200,000), i.e. 273,000 FCFA of B2B foreign services. The VAT to reverse charge is 273,000 x 18% = 49,140 FCFA/month. As a registered taxpayer, she deducts it the same month: zero cash impact. But if she declares nothing for 18 months and gets audited, the reassessment covers 49,140 x 18 = 884,520 FCFA of VAT, plus 25% (221,130) plus late interest (~1.5%/month). Recording it correctly on line 32 would have cost her zero francs in cash.

FAQ

I already pay for Netflix personally, must I declare VAT?

No. For mass-market B2C services, the provider collects and remits the VAT itself if it exceeds 50 million FCFA in Senegalese revenue. You have nothing to declare.

What exactly is the reverse charge?

You, a registered business, declare the VAT in place of the foreign provider on line 32 of the CA7, then deduct it as input the same month. For a normal registered taxpayer, the operation is cash-neutral.

Which subscriptions are affected?

Any professional digital service bought from a foreign provider: SaaS (Figma, Notion, Shopify), advertising (Google Ads, Meta Ads), cloud (AWS, OVH). The rate is 18%.

What does an SME that never declared risk?

A reassessment covering all evaded VAT, plus a 25% surcharge and 1.5% per month of late interest. Over two years, the extra cost exceeds 60% of the principal.

Do I need a special registration?

You need an active NINEA and to be VAT-registered. If you already charge VAT to your clients, you simply declare the reverse charge on the same monthly CA7.

Let's talk about your project. We map your foreign SaaS subscriptions and automate the tracking of the VAT to reverse charge. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.