Angola cuts VAT on industrial equipment sold or imported by its manufacturer to 5% for 2025, on AGT approval

What changed in detail

Lei n.º 18/24 de 30 de Dezembro approves Angola’s General State Budget (OGE) for 2025. It was approved on 12 December 2024, promulgated on 24 December 2024 and published in the Diário da República, I Série, n.º 247, from page 13782. Under article 37.º it enters into force on 1 January 2025.

Article 22.º amends the VAT Code rules:

• n.º 1: VAT on the import or transfer of industrial equipment by the manufacturer is reduced from the 14% general rate to 5%. The reduction requires:
  • a request by the taxpayer;
  • approval by the Administração Geral Tributária (AGT);
  • proof of the equipment’s industrial nature and of its intended purpose.
• n.º 2: a business whose turnover or imports grow past the thresholds of the exclusion or simplified regime must change regime by the end of the month after the operation that caused the change.
• n.º 3: the AGT may change the regime itself if the taxpayer does not.

What it means

The 5% rate is not automatic. Without an approved request, the import or sale is taxed at 14%, and the AGT decides case by case whether equipment is “industrial”.

Article 22 sits in a budget law, which governs the 2025 financial year, and the article itself names no end date. Lei n.º 14/25 (OGE 2026, article 23) renews the 5% rate for 2026, now subject to AGT procedure and verification rather than a taxpayer request and approval.

The regime-change rule in n.º 2 builds on the turnover bands set by Lei n.º 14/23.