Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Incomes other than salaries are not subject, in practise, to IPR.

Moreover, foreign-sourced profits are not taxable in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Employment income

The different taxable elements of remuneration are:

• Salary and wages.
• Allowances that do not correspond to the refunding of professional expenses.
• Bonuses and other indemnities.
• Payments made by the employer in the case of breach of contract (notice allowance), excluding damages.
• Benefits in kind for their real value, except for:
  • Legal family allowances (only extra-legal amount is taxable).
  • Housing, which is not taxable provided the amount of the housing allowance is limited to 30% of the gross salary.
  • Transport, which is not taxable provided the amount is limited to four taxi rides (executives) or four bus tickets (other employees) per day.
  • Medical insurance.

According to the tax doctrine, the indemnities paid in relation to professional expenses (e.g. entertainment allowance, assignment allowance) are exempt from IPR, provided they:

• are used in accordance with their nature (note that the tax authorities may, in case of control, claim for evidences)
• are not overstated as regards the position of the employee concerned, and
• relate to the activity of the company.

As the position of the tax authorities is very strict on these conditions, it appears that it is quite difficult to allow to the employees a ‘professional’ indemnity, which is mainly due to the fact that the employee must prove that a certain amount of expenses is linked to the payment of that indemnity.

Expatriate employees, like local ones, are liable for IPR on the total amount of salary received in connection with their activity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Please note that the minimum salary to be paid to an expatriate employee (and which will be considered as the basis of IPR) is the legal minimum salary payable in one’s country of origin.