Tanzania Foreign-Currency Accounts: What May Be Credited and Paid

This page is the foreign-currency account operating file: what a Tanzanian company may credit to a dollar account, and what it shows before money leaves. It is not a hedging note, nor rate commentary.

• The counter rules: Bank of Tanzania foreign-exchange rules
• Pricing in dollars at home: can you invoice in US dollars
• The outward interview: what the bank asks
• Supplier payments: the supplier document set

As at 14 September 2026. Confirm the current position on bot.go.tz before relying on any line here.

Who holds the mandate, and where Zanzibar sits

The Bank of Tanzania administers the framework built on the Foreign Exchange Act, Cap. 271. It does not open your account. A bank licensed under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act, Cap. 342 does that, applying the rules instruction by instruction alongside due-diligence duties under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, Cap. 423. There is no company-facing currency permit, only a bank to satisfy.

Currency, banking and foreign exchange are Union matters, so one rulebook reaches companies registered at BRELA on the Mainland and at BPRA in Zanzibar. Income tax is Union too: TRA assesses withholding on both sides. Value added tax splits: 18% under the VAT Act, Cap. 148, against 15% under Zanzibar legislation administered by ZRA.

Who a bank will open one for

Eligibility sits in the bank's account-opening policy, not a gazetted list of qualifying companies. A resident company incorporated under the Companies Act, Cap. 212, or registered in Zanzibar, qualifies once it produces a taxpayer identification number, current registry extract, beneficial-ownership particulars and a resolution naming signatories and limits. A registered branch may hold one, on the head office's papers.

Non-citizen shareholding does not shut the door, but the underlying trade must be lawful for that ownership. Where the activity falls inside the reserved list at GN No. 487A of 2025, or a sector Act carrying citizen thresholds, correct activity and shareholding first. A bank spotting the mismatch at review freezes the file rather than argues it.

What may be credited, and the conversion question

Four credit families pass without argument: proceeds of exported goods matched to a declaration and contract; equity or shareholder-loan money sent from abroad; drawdowns on an offshore facility; and fees for services genuinely supplied outside Tanzania. Insurance recoveries settled abroad also post. What fails is shillings bought locally and parked in dollars against a rate movement.

No general surrender rule forces a Mainland exporter to convert on arrival; a balance may sit untouched. Conversion happens operationally: payroll, TRA liabilities and local suppliers settle in shillings. Mineral and gas exporters meet added sector conditions under the Mining Act, Cap. 123.

GN No. 198 of 2025 changed what you may charge at home

The Foreign Currency Usage Regulations, 2025 were gazetted as Government Notice No. 198 of 2025 under the Bank of Tanzania Act, Cap. 197 as amended by the Finance Act 2024, commencing 28 March 2025. Goods and services supplied inside the country are priced in Tanzanian shillings. Quoting in a foreign currency, demanding payment in one, or refusing a shilling tender locally is prohibited.

A narrow exemption list survives (government contributions to regional bodies, diplomatic and international-organisation transactions, foreign-currency lending by banks, and duty-free sales) which the Minister for Finance may vary after consulting the Governor. Contracts already denominated in foreign currency had one year to be amended; that window closed in March 2026, and an unamended contract is exposed unless extended.

Read it precisely. Your account survives untouched. What ended is billing a Tanzanian customer in dollars, collecting locally, then calling the receipt export earnings. The pricing question is worked through in the USD invoicing file.

Paying abroad: the per-payment file

A funded balance is not pre-authorisation for the outward leg. Each instruction is classified, then evidenced against that class. Trade payments need the invoice, the supply contract, and import evidence: the TANSAD customs entry and transport papers. Service payments need the agreement, proof of delivery, and a settled withholding position. Dividends need audited accounts, a directors' recommendation, a members' resolution and tax evidence. Loan repayments need the facility that funded the drawdown.

Three mechanical points decide whether an instruction clears the same week. The beneficiary name must match the invoice character for character. A beneficiary bank in a third country, unrelated to the supplier's address, draws a query. Related-party payments attract more questions, so put the transfer-pricing rationale in the pack first.

The tax that travels with the payment

Withholding is the company's duty under the Income Tax Act, Cap. 332, not the bank's, though the officer will ask to see it handled. Service and management fees to a non-resident are withheld at 15%, royalties at 15%, interest to a non-resident at 10%. Dividends are withheld at 10%, cut to 5% for a company listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and for a dividend paid to a resident corporation holding at least 25% of the shares. The tax is remitted to TRA in shillings within seven days after the end of the month of payment.

A double-taxation agreement can reduce a rate, but the recipient's tax-residence certificate belongs in the file before the lower rate is applied; reclaiming an over-withholding is slow. Imported services carry VAT by reverse charge where input tax is not fully recoverable. Bank commission carries excise duty at 10% under the Excise (Management and Tariff) Act, Cap. 147, with VAT on top. Confirm the live schedule on tra.go.tz.

From screening to first payment: the sequence

1. Screen the activity against GN No. 487A of 2025 and the governing sector Act before any bank conversation begins.
2. Clean the identity layer: registry extract, TIN, beneficial-ownership particulars, business licence and a registered-office record that matches them.
3. Open the shilling account first. A currency account is a second product on an established relationship, rarely the opening one.
4. Request the currency class in writing, naming each currency, the expected monthly inflow, and the countries funds will move between.
5. Paper the inflow before it lands. Send contract and invoice ahead of the value date so the credit posts instead of sitting in suspense.
6. Classify each outward payment: trade, service, dividend, interest, principal, and assemble that class's pack, not a general one.
7. Compute the withholding, remit it, and keep the certificate with the payment instruction.
8. Reconcile monthly to the ledger so balances, invoices and customs entries tell one story at audit.

The documents the file needs

Constitutional set: certificate of incorporation or compliance, memorandum and articles, the BRELA or BPRA extract, and the register of members and directors. Tax set: TIN certificate, VAT certificate where registered, latest return filed. Authority set: the resolution fixing mandate limits, signatory passports or national identity cards with their own TINs, and the beneficial-ownership declaration.

Operating set: business licence, tenancy or title, audited statements or management accounts, and the TIC or ZIPA certificate where held. Transaction set, built per payment: contract, invoice, export declaration or TANSAD entry, transport document, loan agreement, dividend resolutions, tax-residence certificate, and the withholding certificate from the TRA portal. Supplier-side detail sits in the supplier payment file.

Illustrative arithmetic on a consultancy fee

A Mainland manufacturer holding USD 480,000 of export proceeds pays a foreign engineering firm USD 60,000 for commissioning work. That firm has no permanent establishment here and produces no treaty certificate.

Withholding at 15% is USD 9,000, so USD 51,000 leaves and USD 9,000 is converted to settle tax. At an illustrative TZS 2,600 to the dollar (a working assumption for the shape of the sum, never a quoted or published rate) that is TZS 23,400,000 due to TRA within seven days after month end. Commission of USD 250 converts to TZS 650,000; excise at 10% adds TZS 65,000; VAT at 18% on TZS 715,000 adds TZS 128,700: TZS 843,700 of charge-side cost. Illustrative arithmetic, not a quotation.

The instructive part is the gross-up. Where the contract promises USD 60,000 net, the company bears the tax, the withheld amount is computed on a grossed-up base, and the shilling cost rises. Settle that wording before signature.

Offshore accounts, and what your bank reports

A resident company keeping an account outside Tanzania is not running a private arrangement. Cap. 271 treats offshore accounts held by residents as a matter requiring the central bank's view, and the approval route has changed more than once. Check it before opening, not after. A resident is also taxed on worldwide income under Cap. 332, so interest earned abroad is assessable here regardless.

At home, banks file periodic foreign-exchange and balance-of-payments returns, and report suspicious activity and large cash transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit under Cap. 423. Currency carried across the border above USD 10,000 or its equivalent must be declared to Customs; confirm the live threshold, which has moved before. None of this is an assessment. It is data, and an unexplained pattern surfaces in it.

Where the file stalls

Four failures account for most delays. First, a contract still denominated in dollars for a Tanzanian counterparty, unamended past the March 2026 deadline, leaving the receipt hard to characterise. Second, an inward credit landing before its contract reaches the bank, so funds sit in suspense while the customer chases an officer already on another file.

Third, a mandate that contradicts the resolution (two signatories named jointly, an instruction signed by one) stopping a payment that was otherwise complete. Fourth, a service invoice from a related party with no agreement behind it, raising the withholding and transfer-pricing questions at once, and usually returned for restructuring.

Desks this file does not replace

The central bank owns the framework and any approval it requires. Your commercial bank owns the account decision, the documentary list and the value date. TRA owns withholding and tax residence; ZRA owns Zanzibar indirect tax. BRELA and BPRA own the registry record the officer reads. TISEZA and ZIPA own investment certificates and their transferability guarantees. Zatra prepares, structures and coordinates these files; it does not practise law, audit, or issue approvals.

What to confirm before you act

• The bank's current documentary list for your account class and currencies, in writing.
• Whether any contract with a Tanzanian counterparty still carries foreign-currency pricing past the amendment window.
• The withholding rate for each recurring payment type, and whether a treaty certificate is on file.
• The current approval route for any account the group holds outside Tanzania.
• Live rates and filing deadlines on tra.go.tz before you commit to a payment date.