Tanzania brings online data services into its VAT regime for non-resident digital suppliers from 1 July 2024

What changed in detail

Section 51 of Tanzania’s Value Added Tax Act (Cap. 148) requires a non-resident supplying electronic services to unregistered persons in Mainland Tanzania to register and account for VAT. Section 51(2) lists the services covered.

Section 106 of the Finance Act, 2024 (Act No. 6 of 2024) amends section 51(2) in two ways: it adds the words “internet or” to the opening phrase, so that the list covers services delivered through the internet as well as electronic networks, and it adds a new paragraph (j), “online data service”.

Section 102 of the same Act defines “online data services” in section 2 of the VAT Act as any form of monetisation of user data, including the sale or licensing of, or access to, user data or information collected through user engagement with an online platform, whether sold or licensed directly or indirectly, aggregated or disaggregated, anonymised or used in any other form.

The Act was assented to on 30 June 2024 and came into operation on 1 July 2024.

What it means

The paragraph is still in force, but its address has moved. The Finance Act 2026 (Act No. 2 of 2026, s.94) renumbered section 51(2) as section 51(4) and added a paragraph (k) for any similar service delivered through the internet or a telecommunications network. The same section made the operator of an online marketplace the deemed supplier of services sold through it; see Tanzania’s marketplace VAT rule. The Finance Act 2025 replaced paragraph (h), on online intermediation, but left (j) alone.

The definition is wide. It reaches data brokerage and advertising models that sell access to user information, not only services a Tanzanian consumer pays for directly.