As a means to promote doing business in Rwanda, the new law exempts trading license tax on small and medium enterprises for the first two years following their establishments.

The new law n°75/2018of 07/09/2018 determining the sources of revenue and property of decentralized entities came into force starting this year 2019 and it brought many positive changes compared to the abolished law.

Trading license tax is paid yearly; the amount to be paid varies depending on the location and the kind of business as shown in the table below. 

The basis for the calculation of trading license tax for vat registered profit oriented activities is done depending on their turnover as follow:

However even traders whose goods are VAT exempted but with the turnover of 20 million Rwandan Francs or above will also pay the trading license like the VAT registered ones. Trading license is to be paid for every branch of the business a trader operates in.

Declaration and payment of trading license is to be done before 31st January every year.