Accountant & tax adviser in the UK for Ghanaian businesses
From Ghana to Britain

Not always. A Ghanaian company can trade with UK customers through its Ghanaian entity, but four UK questions still have to be answered: whether it has a UK establishment to register with Companies House (form OS IN01, within one month of opening for business), whether it must register for UK VAT, whether the Construction Industry Scheme applies to the work, and whether a permanent establishment arises under the UK–Ghana convention. A UK subsidiary becomes the better route once the UK activity is continuous or UK customers and lenders expect a UK entity.

Yes. We handle the incorporation, the Companies House identity verification (we are an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, ACSP AP019483) and the statutory registers, all remotely. There is no UK-residence requirement for directors or shareholders and you do not need to travel to the UK. Identity verification has been mandatory for every new director and person with significant control since 18 November 2025.

Under Article 5 of the 1993 UK–Ghana Double Taxation Convention, a building site or construction or installation project is a permanent establishment if it exists for more than six months, and supervisory activities become one if they are provided for more than three months. Once a permanent establishment exists, the profits attributable to it are taxable in the UK and a UK corporation tax registration is needed. Shorter projects can still create UK VAT, CIS and payroll obligations.

Possibly from the first invoice. A business with no UK establishment is a non-established taxable person and HMRC applies no registration threshold to it: the UK £90,000 threshold is for UK-established businesses only. If your customer is UK VAT registered, the reverse charge may mean they account for the VAT instead, so the answer depends on who your customer is and on whether goods or services are supplied. We check all of this before your first invoice.

Yes. CIS depends on where the construction work is carried out, not where the contractor is based. A payment to an unregistered subcontractor suffers a 30% deduction, a registered subcontractor 20%, and a subcontractor with gross payment status 0%. Non-resident companies register with HMRC through the dedicated non-resident CIS registration, and we prepare the gross payment application where the tests are met.

Article 15 of the UK–Ghana convention keeps an employee of a Ghanaian company taxable only in Ghana if they are present in the UK for no more than 183 days in aggregate in any twelve-month period, their employer is not UK resident, and the cost is not borne by a UK permanent establishment. National Insurance is a separate question, and the right to work in the UK is a matter for the immigration adviser in our partner network. We check the position for each posting and set up a UK PAYE scheme where one is needed.

Yes. The UK–Ghana Double Taxation Convention was signed on 20 January 1993 and entered into force on 10 August 1994. It has effect in the UK from 1 April 1995 for corporation tax and from 6 April 1995 for income tax and capital gains tax, and in Ghana from 1 January 1995. It governs business profits, permanent establishments, employment income, dividends, interest, royalties and management and technical fees between the two countries.

The UK main rate is 25% on profits above £250,000 and the small profits rate is 19% on profits of £50,000 or less, with marginal relief in between. The thresholds are divided between associated companies, so a Ghanaian group with several companies will usually see lower thresholds for its UK subsidiary.

No. The UK does not impose withholding tax on dividends under its own law, so the treaty ceilings in Article 10 (7.5% where the recipient company controls at least 10% of the voting power, otherwise 15%) matter for dividends paid out of Ghana, not out of the UK. For interest and royalties the convention caps the source-country tax at 12.5%, and management and technical fees at 10% under Article 17; we handle the UK treaty claims.

Your UK tax residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, the year of arrival can be split into a non-resident and a resident part, and from 6 April 2025 new arrivals who were non-UK resident for the previous ten tax years can use the four-year foreign income and gains regime. Ghanaian income you keep, such as rent, pensions or dividends, is dealt with under the convention. We prepare the UK side; your adviser in Ghana deals with the Ghana Revenue Authority. Visa questions go to the immigration adviser in our partner network.

Yes. A member of our team speaks Twi, Fante, Ewe and Ga, so you can talk your plans through in your own language. Our written advice, engagement letters and HMRC and Companies House filings are in English. See Ghanaian accountants in the UK.

Yes. We are appointed as your agent with HMRC and Companies House, receive the correspondence, file the returns and keep the statutory calendar, so your team in Ghana is never chasing a UK deadline.

We hold ourselves to the strictest standards of confidentiality and data protection, in line with UK GDPR, with bank-level security on every system we use.