Windhoek: Minister of Finance and Social Grants Management, Ericah Shafudah, has announced that the government is moving ahead with comprehensive tax policy reforms aimed at enhancing fairness, competitiveness, and economic growth. Shafudah made the announcement in the National Assembly while tabling the 2025/26 Appropriation Amendment Bill on Tuesday. She stated that the reforms are in line with global trends to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio and promote progressive taxation.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the Income Tax Amendment Bill of 2025 has been tabled in Parliament and is expected to be passed into law before the end of the current financial year. Key proposals in the Bill include improvements to the lump-sum retirement benefit, new caps on housing benefit tax structures, and adjustments to the taxation of dividend income from preference shares.

Corporate tax reforms under the Bill will introduce a 20 per cent rate for small and medium-sized enterprises, reduce the rate for non-mining businesses to 28 per cent, and establish a 20 per cent rate for enterprises operating in Special Economic Zones. 'The alignment of taxation of long-term insurers to other non-mining businesses forms part of the reforms,' the minister noted.

Shafudah also revealed that the Ministry of Finance is developing a Medium-Term Revenue Strategy to guide ongoing reforms and resource mobilisation efforts, with further tax proposals to be unveiled in the 2026/27 Main Budget. In efforts to ease tax compliance, the validity of tax good standing certificates will be extended to one year for individuals and SMEs, and six months for other taxpayers.

'We continue to review the ease of tax compliance. Good standing certificates are a necessary tool in tax compliance, to reduce the cost of compliance to taxpayers and tax administration,' said the minister. Further tax proposals are expected to be revealed in the Main Budget announcement scheduled for February 2026.