Botswana sets the registration and invoicing machinery for non-resident remote services VAT

What changed in detail

The Value Added Tax (Remote Services) Regulations, 2026 — Statutory Instrument No. 74 of 2026, made by the Acting Minister of Finance on 29 May 2026 under section 77 of the VAT Act (Cap. 50:03) and published in Supplement C to the Botswana Government Extraordinary Gazette the same day — set out the operating machinery for the non-resident digital-services obligations.

Scope (reg. 3) covers online digital content, software and gambling; electronic data management including hosting, data warehousing, file-sharing and cloud storage; webinars and distance learning; website design or publishing; inbound tourism products under the Tourism Act; professional services provided remotely or performed physically in Botswana; supplies through an electronic marketplace; and “any other remote service”.

Registration (regs. 4–5) requires the supplier’s registered and trade names, contact details, a compliance contact and the website through which the taxable activity is carried on, with certified copies of the incorporation and home-country tax certificates translated into English. Registration takes effect from the beginning of the second tax period after eligibility.

Returns and remittance (regs. 7–8) are both due by the 25th day of the month following the tax period. Invoicing (regs. 9–10) requires the supplier to request a registered recipient’s VAT number and show it on the invoice, with records kept in English for five years. Record-keeping failures attract 75% of the tax payable where deliberate or reckless and 20% otherwise, or fixed penalties of P10,000 for a company and P5,000 otherwise where no tax is payable.

A supplier may appoint a representative (reg. 11) who assumes its obligations, must not impose VAT on an inbound tourism product (reg. 12), and — under the transitional rule (reg. 13) — registers immediately from the commencement of the Act, starting to charge VAT four months from the date of registration.

A companion instrument made the same day, Statutory Instrument No. 73 of 2026, sets a parallel registration route for government entities and large unregistered persons accounting for reverse-charged supplies.

What it means

The four-month runway in regulation 13 is the provision to plan against, and it is easy to read backwards. The clock starts at registration, not at the Act’s commencement — so a supplier who delays registering also delays the point at which they must start charging, while sitting in breach of the immediate-registration duty in the meantime. Registering promptly is what buys the four months.

The inbound-tourism carve-out is the structural oddity. Regulation 3 puts inbound tourism products inside the definition of remote services and regulation 12 then forbids charging VAT on them, which means tourism suppliers can be in scope for registration and reporting while charging nothing. Treating “no VAT” as “no obligation” is the mistake that follows.