Togo bars individual importers and exporters from the TPU simplified regime

What changed in detail

The Office Togolais des Recettes published Avis aux Opérateurs Économiques N° 008/2026/OTR/CG/CI/CDDI on 4 September 2026, signed at Lomé on 2 September 2026 by the Commissaire Général, Yawa Djigbodi Tsegan.

The notice states that under article 129-2 of the Code général des impôts, natural persons carrying out import and/or export operations are not eligible for the régime synthétique d’imposition — the Taxe Professionnelle Unique. Any natural person who carries out, or intends to carry out, such operations must therefore be placed under the régime du bénéfice réel d’imposition, irrespective of the amount of their turnover.

Two consequences follow in the notice itself. Operators currently under the synthetic regime who wish to carry on international trade are told to approach the competent tax offices to complete the formalities for admission to the régime réel. And import or export operations may no longer be carried out by taxpayers under the synthetic regime; those concerned are invited to regularise their tax position as soon as possible in order to avoid any restriction on their operations at the customs cordon.

The notice applies an existing provision of the CGI rather than enacting a new rule. What is new is OTR stating that it will be given effect at the border.

What it means

The enforcement point is the one to plan around. Article 129-2 is not new, but a rule that was previously a classification question has been attached to a gate: the consequence of staying on the TPU is not a reassessment letter months later, it is a consignment that does not move. That shifts the urgency from “before the next return” to “before the next shipment”.

It also moves the taxpayer into a different compliance world. The régime du bénéfice réel carries real-accounting and VAT obligations that the TPU’s single flat tax was designed to replace, so a sole trader importing modest volumes is not making a small administrative change — they are taking on bookkeeping, VAT returns and invoicing duties for the first time.