Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea law does not provide specific provisions for taxation of groups.

Transfer pricing

According to the New EG Tax Code, entities or companies that depend on or are controlled by companies established outside of Equatorial Guinea, as well as those that maintain relationships of connection between them, whose annual income volume is equal to or greater than XAF 250,000,000 or, whose net assets are equal to or greater than XAF 125,000,000, must attach to their Annual CIT return, a detailed statement of the gross amounts of the operations carried out between them.

Furthermore, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) Directive related to CIT states that head office costs are fully deductible if they correspond to real operations, and they are neither unusual nor exaggerated.

However, there is no regulation in force providing a definition of ‘transfer of profits’ and neither any criterion that would allow the determination of the ‘exaggerated’ nature of costs.

Finally, the new foreign exchange regulations applicable within the CEMAC Zone since 1 March 2019 provides the following requirements for inter-group services: requirement to respect the arm's-length principle, requirement of effective service delivery and that they correspond to real needs, and requirement for the payment of a fair price.

Thin capitalisation

According to the Tax Code:

“Interest paid to the partners for amounts made available to the company, in addition to their capital contributions, no matter the form of the company, will be admitted (for deduction) within the limits established for the Central Bank plus three (3) points"

Controlled foreign companies (CFCs)

“Regarding legal entities located outside of Equatorial Guinea and which have subsidiary or interdependence ties with other legal entities or companies located in Equatorial Guinea, the place of their taxation will be the same as that of the legal entities or companies with which it maintains those ties (i.e. Equatorial Guinea). These latter are jointly and severally liable for the payment of the tax owed by the legal entities located outside of Equatorial Guinea.”