Burkina Faso brings e-commerce platform sales into TVA and makes platform operators collect it from 1 January 2025

What changed in detail

Loi n°042-2024/ALT, Burkina Faso’s Finance Law for 2025, was adopted by the Assemblée Législative de Transition on 23 December 2024 and takes effect from 1 January 2025 (art. 89). Two of its articles create a TVA regime for e-commerce platforms.

Article 26 rewrites article 299 of the General Tax Code and adds a new point 4): sales of goods and services made in Burkina Faso through foreign or local e-commerce platforms, including the commissions platform operators earn on them, are within the scope of TVA.

Article 35 adds a paragraph 5) to article 334:

• a) platform operators liquidate, declare and remit the TVA due on those sales on behalf of the suppliers, and declare and remit the TVA on their own commissions;
• b) operators must register with the tax administration, and may register, file and pay online through its portal;
• c) failing those obligations can lead to suspension of access to the platform from Burkinabè territory, on top of the code’s other penalties;
• d) the implementing details are left to an order (arrêté) of the finance minister.

What it means

The regime has been law since 1 January 2025 and we have found no later amendment to it. It shifts collection from the supplier to the platform, so a marketplace serving Burkinabè customers is responsible for the TVA on its sellers’ sales, not only on its own commission.

The access-suspension sanction is the enforcement lever against foreign platforms with no local presence. How the obligations work in practice depends on the finance minister’s implementing order, which this law left to follow.