Gabon

Taxable period

Companies are required by law to have a 31 December closing of any fiscal year.

Tax returns

Returns for the previous calendar year are to be filed before 30 April of each year.

Payment of tax

Tax is payable to the General Tax Office in two instalments on 30 November and 30 January. The balance of the tax due must be paid by 30 April. The first instalment must equal one-quarter of the tax assessed in the previous year and the second instalment must equal one-third of this tax.

Tax audit process

The rules concerning the tax audit procedure are provided by the Gabonese Tax Code.

There is no specific rule on the selection of companies to be subject to a tax audit. However, it has to be noted that, generally, the tax administration proceeds by sectors of activities.

The Tax Inspectors proceed to audits at the head office or at the place of the taxpayer’s main establishment.

The main steps of the tax audit are the following:

• Notification of a tax audit by which the taxpayer is informed on the date of performance of the tax audit.
• Performance of the audit.
• Provisions of a notification of reassessment.
• Provision, by the taxpayer, of its answers to the notification of reassessment (to be provided within a delay of 20 days from the receipt of the notification; the taxpayer can be provided, upon request, a postponement of the delay of response, which cannot exceed ten days).
• Reply of the tax administration to the answers of the taxpayer (to be provided within a delay of 60 days from the receipt of the above-mentioned answer from the taxpayer).
• Closing of the tax audit.

Exceptionally, the tax administration can proceed with on-site verification in case of discovery of hidden activities and no respect of filing and payment requirement without prior notification of a tax audit. 

Statute of limitations

The tax administration can proceed to tax audit until the fourth year following the year for which the tax is due.

Topics of focus for tax authorities

The tax administration shall particularly focus on the following aspects:

• Compliance of deductibility of management fees.
• Compliance of deductibility of corporate expenses.
• Compliance of WHT on payments made to foreign services providers.
• Payment of VAT on behalf of third parties.