Ivory Coast VAT on Stripe Digital Services in QuickBooks

A software company in Denver sells a $25 monthly plan, priced in dollars. A marketing agency in Abidjan signs up, enters its Ivorian tax number at checkout, and expects the invoice to come through without VAT, the way it would from a supplier that applies the reverse charge. It doesn't. Stripe charges the agency 18 percent, and under Côte d'Ivoire's rules that is the correct result.

Stripe added Ivory Coast to Stripe Tax on 30 October 2026, according to its supported countries table. Its Ivory Coast entry gives the registration threshold as "1 transaction" and lists the transactions included in monitoring as "B2C and B2B digital products." Both details come straight from the country's own rules: no threshold, and business customers taxed the same way as consumers.

This guide works from the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI) explanatory note no. 03949 on VAT for digital platforms and digital services, signed in Abidjan in October 2023 and published by the DGI in French and English. Quotes below are from the DGI's English version. It is bookkeeping guidance, not tax advice.

Acodei brings Stripe Tax amounts into QuickBooks, so the Ivorian VAT you collect lands in a liability account you can check before each quarterly payment. Start a free trial.

Where the rule comes from

Côte d'Ivoire's VAT on foreign digital services comes from Article 7 of the tax schedule (the annexe fiscale) to Finance Law no. 2021-899 of 21 December 2021, the budget law for 2022. The DGI note says Article 7 "instituted a value added tax (VAT) on online service sales and commissions received by digital platforms that do not have professional installations in Ivorian territory."

The note then explains how the rule works in practice: who it covers, a simplified remote registration, a simplified return, and online payment. It also gave businesses time to adapt. The note's introduction sets the start of the filing and payment obligations at six months from the note's publication on the DGI website. Its final paragraph says the note applies six months from the date of its signature. The French original is signed 9 October 2023, so on the signature reading the obligations have applied since April 2024, and on the publication reading from about the same time.

Does a SaaS company count as a "digital platform"?

Yes. The word "platform" makes the rule sound like it's aimed at marketplaces, but the note's definition is wider. It covers operators of digital platforms "not established on Ivorian territory," and then adds: "Also covered by this system are digital platforms owned by service sellers that do not play an intermediary role in concluding other transactions than their own." A company that sells its own software subscriptions through its own website is one of those.

The note lists the main categories of services, "without this list being exhaustive":

1. Online advertising services.
2. Online data services.
3. Online markets, such as food delivery, housing rentals and vehicle rentals.
4. Digital content services: the sale or streaming of "multimedia or documentary content."
5. Online gaming services.
6. Cloud computing services, where platforms "offer their users, for a fee, online hosting of data or digital content in a private space, or grant the user access to applications or software."
7. Social network platforms, but only for their paid services.
8. Search engines, again only for paid services.

A SaaS subscription sits in item 6. An online course or a subscription to video or written content sits in item 4. Stripe only calculates Ivorian tax on products with a digital product tax code, so check your codes before you add the registration.

From the first sale, with no threshold

The note has a section titled "Tax liability threshold," and its answer is that there isn't one: "no liability threshold has been provided. As a result, any digital company without a professional establishment in Côte d'Ivoire is required to declare the Value Added Tax (VAT) relating to their activities on Ivorian territory." The companies concerned "must charge and remit VAT on services rendered in Côte d'Ivoire, irrespective of the turnover of the operations carried out."

That is why Stripe's threshold reads "1 transaction." Stripe's threshold monitoring will flag Côte d'Ivoire as soon as it sees one digital sale there, but the flag is a reminder, not a registration. Until you register with the DGI and add the registration in Stripe's Locations tab, Stripe doesn't charge Ivorian VAT. The taxability reason on those sales reads not_collecting.

Business customers pay too

This is the detail that catches most sellers. In many countries a business buyer accounts for VAT on a foreign service itself under the reverse charge, so the foreign seller charges nothing. Côte d'Ivoire's rule doesn't work that way. The note says: "According to Article 7 of the Tax Schedule for the year 2022, both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions are encompassed."

Stripe's customer tax ID table matches that. It lists ci_vat (Ivory Coast Value Added Tax number) with "Impact in Tax Calculation: No." The table's footnote explains what a "Yes" would mean: "Stripe Tax won't apply tax if this tax ID is provided, in line with the relevant laws." For Côte d'Ivoire it's "No," so the agency in Abidjan pays the 18 percent whether or not its number is on file.

The number still matters, because the DGI wants your business customers to be able to recover the VAT you charge them. For B2B invoicing, the note says that "it is imperative for non-resident companies to include the following details to enable VAT recovery for B2B customers":

• the customer's name;
• the customer's taxpayer identification number (the French text says numéro de compte contribuable);
• the nature of the service;
• the date of the service;
• the amount invoiced.

Stripe prints a customer's tax IDs in the header of invoice and credit note PDFs, according to the same tax ID page. Store the number as a customer tax ID whenever an Ivorian business gives you one, and make sure the invoice line describes the service and the period it covers. For consumers, the note says you "will continue to issue receipts to customers according to their current business processes."

When a customer counts as being in Côte d'Ivoire

The note puts the place of supply where the customer is: VAT is payable in Côte d'Ivoire "provided the user, beneficiary or recipient of the service is located within the territorial confines of Côte d'Ivoire at the service delivery time." The location is "ascertained either based on the details chronicled by the platform on their individual profile or, in the absence of such details, through geolocation data or the IP address associated with the device employed during the transaction."

Stripe works from one location per customer. For invoices and subscriptions it uses the first it finds: the shipping address, then the billing address, then the billing details of the payment method, then the customer's IP address. That lines up well with the DGI's order. Profile details come first, and the IP address is the fallback. If your checkout collects a billing address, Stripe will usually locate an Ivorian customer from it.

The rate, and what Stripe puts on the invoice

The rate is 18 percent. The note says so in its payment section: "The applicable rate stands at 18%."

On the $25 plan priced exclusive of tax, the invoice carries $4.50 of VAT. Priced inclusive, $25 contains $21.19 of value and $3.81 of VAT ($25 × 18 / 118). Stripe records the tax when the invoice finalizes. Its tax reports documentation says: "We consider transactions effective on the date they finalize and we don't recalculate taxes afterwards."

Registering with the DGI

Registration is a simplified online declaration. The note says operators without a professional establishment or legal representation in Côte d'Ivoire "are mandated to proceed with a simplified fiscal existence declaration online," which gives them a tax identifier "enabling them to comply with their VAT obligations." The form asks for:

• the platform's trade name;
• the operator's name or corporate name;
• the platform's activities;
• its addresses and headquarters;
• its country of registration;
• its tax identification number in that country;
• optionally, bank account details for tax payments in Côte d'Ivoire;
• any representatives in Côte d'Ivoire.

The registration form attached to the note also asks for a named administrator of your account on the DGI's e-impôts portal, with a phone number and email address.

Several things the note rules out:

• No permanent establishment. Registration "does not create a tax link (permanent establishment) for tax purposes, nor does it subject the digital platform to other taxes in Côte d'Ivoire."
• No tax representative. "Digital platforms that are non-residents are under no obligation to appoint a tax representative in Côte d'Ivoire." Compare Mauritius, where a tax representative is required above a turnover line.
• No Ivorian bank account. Neither Article 7 nor the note requires one.
• No French-language books. Article 7 doesn't require you to keep commercial and accounting books in French "in accordance with Ivorian standards."
• No routine customer list. There is no systematic obligation to file a list of Ivorian clients, but the DGI can ask for one, "particularly during audits." Keep your Stripe data where you can produce it.

Once the DGI has registered you, add Côte d'Ivoire in Stripe's Locations tab. Stripe's entry says that's how you "start collecting tax on your transactions in that location."

Filing and paying each quarter

The return. The simplified return asks for:

• the tax period (year and quarter);
• the type of taxable operations with Ivorian clients;
• the total pre-tax amount from transactions with Ivorian clients in the period;
• the pre-tax amount subject to VAT;
• the VAT charged to clients in Côte d'Ivoire.

The deadline. "VAT is paid quarterly by electronic means on the e-impots portal of the Direction Générale des Impôts through the simplified declaration procedure." The deadline is the 20th of the month after each quarter ends: "no later than April 20th, July 20th, October 20th, and January 20th of each year."

The currency. "Companies will be able to declare and pay VAT in the following foreign currencies: euros or US dollars," into bank accounts the DGI publishes on its website. A company that prices in dollars can file and pay in dollars.

That has a consequence for which Stripe numbers you use. In the itemized export, tax_amount is in your integration currency, the currency you priced in. The filing_currency, filing_exchange_rate and filing_tax_amount columns convert to what Stripe treats as the tax authority's local filing currency, "using available exchange rates at the time of the transaction." If you price in dollars and pay the DGI in dollars, work from tax_amount, not the filing columns. Our Stripe Tax filing currency entry explains those columns.

To build the return, filter the itemized export on country_code CI for the quarter. The sum of taxable_amount gives the pre-tax amount subject to VAT, and the sum of tax_amount gives the VAT charged. Credit notes and refunds appear as rows with a transaction_type of reversal; net them against the original rows so both figures come down.

A worked example: one quarter

A US software company registers with the DGI and adds Côte d'Ivoire in Stripe. It prices in dollars, exclusive of tax. In the quarter from January to March:

• 80 consumers pay the $25 monthly plan for three months: $6,000 of sales and $1,080 of VAT.
• 3 Ivorian companies, each with a ci_vat number stored, pay a $200 monthly team plan: 9 invoices, $1,800 of sales and $324 of VAT. Stripe charges them the same 18 percent as consumers.
• One consumer gets a month refunded through a credit note: minus $25 of sales and minus $4.50 of VAT.

Stripe's Ivorian figures for the quarter: $7,775 of sales and $1,399.50 of VAT, which is exactly 18 percent.

The return shows $7,775 as the pre-tax amount subject to VAT and $1,399.50 of VAT charged. The company pays $1,399.50 in dollars through e-impôts by 20 April. The three business customers each hold invoices with their name, their taxpayer number, the service and its period, so they can deduct the VAT they paid.

What reaches QuickBooks, and what you book yourself

Acodei brings Stripe Tax amounts into QuickBooks in one of two ways.

• The tax product approach. Every Stripe Tax amount goes onto one line, a non-inventory product mapped to a liability account, and you use Stripe's tax reports to split it by jurisdiction. This is the usual setup for US QuickBooks companies. For Côte d'Ivoire, the $1,399.50 lands as tax on the sales records Acodei creates, in the same liability account as every other country you collect for.
• QuickBooks tax rate mapping. For QuickBooks companies outside the US, you map each Stripe tax rate ID to a QuickBooks tax code. Côte d'Ivoire has one rate on these services, so one 18 percent code covers it.

For the quarter, that means:

• The refund. It went through a credit note, so the tax on it reaches QuickBooks with the line-level breakdown. A refund issued against the payment alone, without a credit note, doesn't carry that breakdown, and the tax on it may need a manual adjustment in QuickBooks.
• The payment to the DGI. This is yours to record: debit the tax liability $1,399.50 and credit the bank. Because the DGI takes dollars, a dollar-based company paying in dollars has no exchange difference to book. If you pay in euros from a dollar account, or in dollars from a euro account, put any difference to exchange gain or loss.

Our guide to reconciling the Stripe Tax report in QuickBooks covers splitting the liability account by country. The Ivorian slice should be back at zero after each quarterly payment.

If you sold into Côte d'Ivoire before Stripe supported it

The DGI's filing obligations have applied since 2024. Stripe added Côte d'Ivoire on 30 October 2026. If you had Ivorian customers in between, Stripe didn't calculate VAT on those sales, and adding the registration now won't change that, because Stripe doesn't recalculate tax on finalized transactions.

The itemized export can help you size the gap. Stripe says it contains non-taxable transactions, including those "in locations where you're not registered" and "in locations that Stripe Tax doesn't support," for transactions where you had Stripe Tax enabled. Filter on Ivorian addresses, and the taxability_reason column shows why no tax was charged. Talk to the DGI, or an adviser, about the earlier periods before you file your first return.

How Côte d'Ivoire compares with Mauritius and Ghana

Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritius and Ghana all joined Stripe Tax on 30 October 2026. In Stripe's tax ID table, Côte d'Ivoire's ci_vat, Mauritius's mu_vat and Ghana's gh_tin all show no impact on tax calculation, so in none of them does storing a business customer's number remove the tax.

The details differ:

• Mauritius wants a list of VAT-registered customers with every return, and a tax representative above a turnover line.
• Ghana has its own levies on top of VAT, which Stripe's table lists as "VAT, GET Fund Levy, and NHIL."
• Côte d'Ivoire keeps it to one rate, a quarterly return, no representative and no routine customer list, with payment in dollars or euros.

Our guide to the countries that register you from the first sale covers the wider group.

Common mistakes with Ivorian VAT on Stripe sales

• Assuming "platform" means marketplace. The note also covers sellers' own platforms, which includes a SaaS company's own website.
• Waiting for a threshold. There isn't one. One Ivorian sale is enough.
• Expecting ci_vat to switch on a reverse charge. Stripe's table says it doesn't, and the DGI's note includes B2B sales.
• Leaving business invoices bare. The DGI expects the customer's name and taxpayer number, the nature and date of the service, and the amount, so the customer can recover the VAT.
• Filing from the filing-currency columns. If you price and pay in dollars, use tax_amount.
• Missing the 20th. Returns and payments are due 20 April, 20 July, 20 October and 20 January.
• Appointing a representative you don't need. The note says non-resident platforms aren't required to have one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do foreign SaaS companies have to pay VAT in Côte d'Ivoire?

Yes. Article 7 of the tax schedule to the 2022 Finance Law taxes digital services sold by businesses with no professional establishment in Côte d'Ivoire. The DGI's explanatory note 03949 covers sellers' own platforms as well as marketplaces, and lists cloud computing, giving users access to applications or software, among the services in scope.

Is there a registration threshold for Ivorian VAT on digital services?

No. The DGI note says no liability threshold has been provided, and that foreign digital companies must charge and remit VAT irrespective of turnover. That's why Stripe's Ivory Coast entry shows a threshold of one transaction and monitors both consumer and business sales.

Does Stripe charge Ivorian VAT to business customers?

Yes. Stripe lists the Ivory Coast VAT number (ci_vat) as having no impact on tax calculation. That matches the DGI note, which says both B2C and B2B transactions are covered. Business customers can recover the VAT if your invoice shows their name, taxpayer number, the nature and date of the service, and the amount.

How often do foreign suppliers file and pay Ivorian VAT?

Quarterly, through the DGI's e-impôts portal, using a simplified return. Payment is due by the 20th of the month after each quarter: 20 April, 20 July, 20 October and 20 January. The rate is 18 percent.

Can I pay Ivorian VAT in US dollars?

Yes. The DGI note says companies can declare and pay in euros or US dollars, into bank accounts the DGI publishes on its website. You don't need an Ivorian bank account or a tax representative.

The short version

Register with the DGI through the simplified online procedure from your first Ivorian sale, charge 18 percent to consumers and businesses alike, and file a short return every quarter by the 20th. Store ci_vat numbers, not to remove the tax, but so business customers get invoices they can recover VAT from. Pay in dollars or euros. In QuickBooks, the Ivorian slice of the tax liability account should be back at zero after every quarterly payment.

Acodei syncs Stripe Tax into QuickBooks, so each Ivorian return starts from the liability account instead of a spreadsheet. Start a free trial.