Free invoice generator and tax tools for Botswana

Since 1 July 2026 Botswana runs on three new Acts: the Income Tax Act, 2026, the Tax Administration Act, 2026 and the Value Added Tax Act, 2026, all collected by the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS). The tax year runs from 1 July to 30 June. A company pays income tax at 24.5 per cent of taxable income unless it falls in a special class such as mining or an International Financial Services Centre company. A sole trader or partner is taxed as an individual on the resident scale, which is nil up to P48,000 and rises through 5, 12.5, 18.75 and 25 per cent to 27.5 per cent on income above P400,000 (Income Tax Act, 2026, Schedule 1).

If you employ people you are also a collector. Section 129 of the Income Tax Act makes the employer withhold tax from employment income, and section 131 makes anyone who pays under a construction contract withhold tax from the gross payment, unless the contract is below the Schedule 1 value or is purely for design, engineering, surveying or similar professional work.

Records are governed by the Tax Administration Act, not the tax Acts: keep them in English or Setswana, in Botswana and in Pula, for eight years after the tax period (section 14). Individuals running a small business get a simpler route described on the small business section of this edition.

The Income Tax Act, 2026 (section 53) gives an individual running a small business a simplified income tax. It is not a flat or presumptive tax: your taxable income is still calculated under the Act, but you may account for income and expenses on a cash basis, write off depreciable assets and business intangibles at 100 per cent, and deduct the cost of stock when you buy it instead of adjusting for opening and closing stock. Records and assessment amendments are limited to three years instead of eight. To qualify, the business must be conducted wholly in Botswana, you must not be registered for VAT, and your annual gross income must not exceed the VAT registration threshold in Schedule 5 of the VAT Act. It applies to the individual only, and only to income from the small business itself; other income keeps the normal rules (Income Tax Regulations, 2026, regulation 33).