Kumasi

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed5%–35% progressive (bands from 1 September 2026)

A resident's assessable income is worldwide income from all sources. Pay for employment exercised, or services rendered, in Ghana has a Ghana source regardless of where it is paid (Act 896, section 105(i)). The exemption in section 111(2) covers only employment exercised in a foreign country, so a salary from a foreign employer for work done from a laptop in Accra is taxed. Fees from foreign clients are business income of a resident and are taxed whatever their source. Annual bands from 1 September 2026 (Act 1178): first GH¢7,056 nil, next GH¢960 at 5%, next GH¢1,200 at 10%, next GH¢34,800 at 17.5%, next GH¢192,000 at 25%, next GH¢363,984 at 30%, and 35% above GH¢600,000. Because the bands changed mid-year, tax for 2026 is apportioned by months between the old and new rates (First Schedule, paragraph 9). A foreign employer does not run Ghanaian PAYE, so you register with GRA, file a self-assessment estimate (form DT 104) and an annual return (DT 103). Short stays are not automatically safe: a non-resident is taxed at a flat 25% on Ghana-source income, and section 105(i) makes work done in Ghana Ghana-source; a treaty may override this for short stays. Foreign tax on the same income is credited without needing a treaty, capped at your average Ghanaian rate, or can be deducted instead (section 112). Ghana lists 14 treaties (UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, South Africa, Mauritius, Morocco, Qatar, Singapore), none with the US. The presumptive tax of 3% of turnover for individuals with turnover above GH¢20,000 and up to GH¢750,000 (from 1 September 2026) is announced for businesses; whether it covers professional freelancers with foreign clients was not confirmed. Social security (SSNIT) for remote workers of foreign employers was not confirmed here.

On the nomad visa

Ghana has no digital nomad or remote-work visa. Visitors enter on a visa or visa-free where eligible, and the Ghana Immigration Service can extend a visitor's permit by up to six months at a time; employment is restricted on a visitor's permit, and longer stays normally need a work and residence permit. No permit carries a tax regime: staying 183 days in any 12 months makes you resident and taxed on worldwide income, and remote work done in Ghana is Ghana-source even before that.

Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

Taxed5%–35% progressive; 25% flat by election on gains

Investment income includes dividends, interest, annuities, rent, royalties and gains on investment assets (Act 896, section 6(2)), and a resident is taxed on it worldwide. The final withholding rates apply only to payments with a Ghana source (8% on dividends from Ghanaian companies, 8% on residential rent and 15% on non-residential rent), so foreign dividends, interest and rent are added to your chargeable income at the 5%–35% scale. For gains on investment assets an individual may elect a flat 25% (First Schedule, paragraph 1(3), as amended by Act 1094 of 2023; GRA's capital gains page still shows the old 15%, but the law text says 25%). A return is due within 30 days of realising an asset (section 39A). Arrival and departure matter: on becoming resident, foreign assets take their market value as cost, so earlier gains are not taxed (section 102(3)); on ceasing to be resident, they are treated as sold at market value on that day (section 102(4)), an exit tax on unrealised gains. "Pension" is listed as exempt (section 7(1)(d)) without limiting it to Ghanaian pensions, but the Act also taxes gains from interests in non-resident retirement funds, so the treatment of a foreign pension was not confirmed. Foreign tax is credited under section 112.

Net wealth and inheritance

No wealth taxNo inheritance tax

Ghana has no net wealth tax and no estate or inheritance tax. Instead, the income tax treats transfers as sales: an individual who dies is treated as selling each asset at market value (Act 896, section 44), except assets passing to a spouse, which carry over at cost (section 43), and giving an asset away is also treated as a sale at market value (section 45). Gift tax falls on the recipient: a gift is taxed at the normal scale or, by election, a flat 25% (First Schedule, paragraph 1(4), as amended in 2023; GRA's gift page still shows 15%). GRA excludes gifts under a will, on intestacy and transfers to a spouse, child or parent, and requires a return within 21 days of receipt with tax due on filing. Whether gifts from abroad of foreign assets are reached was not confirmed. Conveyances pay stamp duty under the Stamp Duty Act, 2005 (Act 689); the published schedule is in pre-2007 cedis, so the current rates were not confirmed. Local property rates were not reviewed here.

Tax resident after

183 days a year

Top income tax rate

35%

When you become tax resident

A non-citizen is resident for a year of assessment (the calendar year) if present in Ghana for an aggregate of 183 days or more in any 12-month period that starts or ends in that year (Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), section 101(1)(b)). Under that test you are resident from the start of the 183-day period, not from 1 January (section 102(2)). There is no home or centre-of-interests test for non-citizens; the home rules in section 101 apply only to Ghanaian citizens. A visitor who stays under 183 days in every 12-month window stays non-resident, but non-residents are still taxed on Ghana-source income (see remote work). Two visitor's-permit stays of six months in a row would make you resident.

Top income tax rate

35% on annual chargeable income above GH¢600,000 (GH¢50,000 a month), the same in Accra and across Ghana because income tax is a single national tax under Act 896. The bands in force from 1 September 2026 (Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act 1178)) raised the nil band to GH¢7,056; the 35% band starts at GH¢600,000. Non-residents pay a flat 25% instead.