Cameroon’s March 15 deadline passes for foreign betting and casino platforms to comply with new 3% digital tax

Under the 2026 Finance Law’s “significant economic presence” rules, non-resident digital platforms—including offshore sports betting and online casino operators—must register with the tax authority, declare Cameroon-sourced revenue and pay a minimum 3% levy; March 15 was the key filing/payment date for large taxpayers.

Cameroon has reached and passed the March 15 compliance deadline set for large taxpayers under the country’s 2026 Finance Law, requiring foreign digital platforms—including offshore sports betting and online casino operators—to meet the obligations of a newly introduced 3% minimum corporate tax on Cameroon-sourced digital revenue.

The measure applies to non-resident digital businesses that generate revenue from users in Cameroon without a local physical presence, using a “significant economic presence (SEP)” test. KPMG’s tax update explains that SEP can be triggered if a platform exceeds FCFA 50 million in Cameroon-sourced gross receipts in a tax year or has more than 1,000 users/customers/account holders located in Cameroon.

For affected offshore operators, the practical steps are compliance-heavy: registration with the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), declaration of local revenue, and electronic payment of the levy. Focus Gaming News Africa notes that the rule is still new and many operators have been adjusting to the filing requirements as the system rolls out across the market.

The 3% mechanism is also designed as a gateway into fuller taxation for larger platforms. Under the SEP framework, Cameroon effectively treats taxable profit for the relevant digital income as 10% of gross Cameroon-sourced income, then applies the corporate rate conceptually—producing the 3% on gross income result. Companies can alternatively opt into the standard 30% corporate tax on actual net profit, a path likely to matter for platforms with sizeable, auditable operations.

With the March 15 deadline now passed, the immediate issue for regulators and the industry is enforcement: whether DGI will quickly identify non-compliant foreign gambling platforms, and how strictly it will apply registration and payment expectations—especially in a segment where offshore operators historically served local users without a formal tax footprint.