Engaging a contractor in Equatorial Guinea runs on a services agreement and an invoice from an individual or a sole proprietorship with a tax identification number. The contractor pays their own income tax, on a scale that tops out at 25%, and a foreign client with no local presence withholds nothing that we could find. The legal risk is classification: vendors report that authorities look at the real working relationship and not the contract label. This guide covers the contractor’s tax, reclassification, the contract and the payer’s paperwork. The payment side is on our Equatorial Guinea payouts page. It is general information, not legal advice, and public official sources for the country are thin, so several points below rest on vendor guides and are marked as such.
Who the contractor is
Individual or sole proprietorship. Deel’s registration guide says a sole proprietorship is registered in person through the Department for Small and Medium Enterprises at the Ministry of Trade, with notarized statutes, a notarized criminal record copy and a bank account. A CFA 2,000 payment to the Public Treasury comes before the tax identification number (Deel, checked 2026-11-04). Ask for the number and for proof of registration before the first invoice.
Working for you from abroad. Playroll’s guide says you can hire contractors without a local entity for project-based work, while employees need an entity or an Employer of Record (Playroll, checked 2026-11-04).
The contractor’s tax and contributions
Income tax. Residents are taxed on worldwide income on a scale of 0% up to XAF 1,400,000 a year, 10% to XAF 5,000,000, 15% to XAF 10,000,000, 20% to XAF 15,000,000 and 25% above (PwC, checked 2026-11-04). PwC’s page does not say how self-employed income is taxed, so the contractor should confirm their own regime with an accountant.
VAT. The rate is 15% (Remote, checked 2026-11-04). A vendor guide reports that a service provider under XAF 30,000,000 of annual turnover falls under a simplified flat-rate regime and charges no separate VAT, with VAT above that (Teamed, checked 2026-11-04). Agree in the contract whether the fee includes VAT.
Social security. The same guide says a self-employed person who affiliates voluntarily with INSESO declares a minimum base of XAF 300,000. The client pays none of it, but a contractor quoting a net rate must cover their own.
Reclassification risk
Teamed’s guide describes three markers of employment: pay, dependence and who carries the risk of the activity. It adds that employment is presumed whenever a person renders paid services for another’s account, even with no written contract, and that no advance status ruling exists (Teamed, checked 2026-11-04). It cites the General Labour Law, Ley 4/2021; we could not open the law itself, so confirm the text with local counsel. Playroll names the facts that count: direction by the company, its schedule and its equipment (Playroll, checked 2026-11-04). The label does not decide it.
The cost, per the same vendors, is back INSESO contributions, paid leave, statutory bonuses, notice and severance. Teamed reports labour fines of XAF 50,000 to XAF 500,000 per infraction and a three-year limitation period for employer infractions, with INSESO able to pursue back-contributions beyond it (Teamed, checked 2026-11-04). A single client, fixed hours, a set monthly fee and your instructions are the facts a claimant would use (contractor misclassification). If the role is a job, hire through an EOR; Skuad, G-P and Playroll publish Equatorial Guinea EOR pages (Skuad, G-P, Playroll, checked 2026-11-04). See the EOR rating.
What to put in the contract
- A written services agreement scoped to deliverables, with the fee, currency, receiving account and who bears transfer charges.
- An invoice for every payment, showing the contractor’s tax number and matched to the payment reference.
- IP assignment in writing. We found no Equatorial Guinean rule on contractor-created IP, so assign the rights explicitly and ask local counsel about formalities.
- Independence markers: the contractor’s own equipment and schedule, the right to work for other clients, and a fee tied to deliverables.
Taxes and paperwork
The contractor’s side. Register with the tax authority, hold a tax identification number, issue an invoice per payment and declare the income.
The client’s side. Pay gross against the invoice. PwC’s withholding table lists 10% on services provided by non-resident entities to entities located in Equatorial Guinea from 1 January 2025 (PwC, checked 2026-11-04), and Teamed reports 20% for non-resident individual contractors when the client is local. Both concern a local client; with an Equatorial Guinean entity or branch, ask an adviser. US payers collect a W-8BEN from an individual and file no 1099: pay for work done in Equatorial Guinea is foreign-source income (irs.gov, checked 2026-11-04). Equatorial Guinea is not on the IRS list of income tax treaties (irs.gov, checked 2026-11-04).
How to pay contractors in Equatorial Guinea
A SWIFT wire to the contractor’s bank account is the baseline; Airwallex lists payouts in 22 currencies and local XAF payouts needing a 23-character account number (Airwallex, checked 2026-11-04). Foreign-currency accounts need BEAC approval, and export proceeds above XAF 5 million come back through a CEMAC bank within 150 days (Addleshaw Goddard, checked 2026-11-04). Rails, costs and platforms are compared on our Equatorial Guinea payouts page.
Contractor of Record in Equatorial Guinea
A Contractor of Record is the contracting party for the contractor and reduces reclassification risk; it does not remove it. In Equatorial Guinea the work still has to look independent, and the COR also keeps contracts and invoices consistent across a team. Read the liability clause in the contract rather than the product name. Where the role is a job, with your hours, your tools and core work, hire through an EOR instead. Compare providers in our COR rating.