Cameroon: Cameroon’s 2025 Finance Law: Key Tax Implications for Foreign Experts, Companies, and Individual Taxpayers

Finance Law 2025, Section 23, stipulates that consultants and experts of foreign nationality working in Cameroon will be liable for a work visa fee, set at 5% of their fees. If a Cameroonian employer hires a foreign consultant or expert and fails to comply with this law, they will face a penalty of 5% of the fees or twice the amount of the mentioned fee.

The law equally states that application fees for authorisation to carry out commercial activity in Cameroon shall be set as follows:

• CFAF 1 500 000 ($ 2 380) for public limited companies (PLC) and simplified joint stock companies;
• CFAF 1 000 000 ($ 1 587) for limited liability companies, General Partnerships and Limited Partnerships;
• CFAF 500 000 ($ 793) for individual 

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In respect to company net profit, section 7-C of the General Tax Code (GTC) allows businesses to automatically deduct losses from bad debts of less than FCFA 500,000 if they have been provisioned for at least five years. In the fiscal year 2024, the deduction was strictly limited to bad debt losses below this threshold. However, starting in the fiscal year 2025, the deductible limit increases to FCFA 3,000,000, but only for credit institutions such as banks and financial institutions. Non-compliance with this provision will result in the bad debt amount being added back to taxable profit, increasing the company's tax liability.

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The finance law equally state that provision for doubtful debts and commitments of credit and microfinance institutions shall not be deductible where the said provisions relate to cumulative annual credits of at least CFAF 50 million granted to the same company on the basis of financial statements not certified by an auditor, in accordance with the provision of section M.6b of this code.

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Section 74 of the finance law state that Non-professional taxpayers who receive income from salaries wages, pensions, life annuities and/or income from transferable securities and income from property, and in general any passive income, shall file a recapitulative annual income tax return with the tax center of their place of residence within precise deadline

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Section 549 of the finance law states that the scientific research license for foreigners is CFAF 100 000

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Reference/ Citation

Ministry of Finance. “Finance law 2025”. 2025