Benin has positioned itself as a digital taxation pioneer in West Africa. Under the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI), the country has successfully rolled out the Standardized Invoice (Facture Normalisée) system, making real-time validation of tax IDs mandatory for every transaction.
For international logistics companies using the Port of Cotonou and exporters targeting the Beninese market, compliance hinges on the IFU (Identifiant Fiscal Unique). Without a valid IFU, goods cannot clear customs, and invoices are legally void for VAT deduction purposes.
Introduction
The backbone of Benin’s fiscal infrastructure is the DGI. The administration has aggressively integrated tax databases with the National Agency for Identification (ANIP), linking civil identity to tax compliance.
For global enterprises, the critical challenge is ensuring that the IFU provided by a partner is not only valid but also capable of generating a “Facture Normalisée” via the MeCeF (Electronic Billing Machine) system. A mismatch here leads to immediate financial loss via rejected input tax credits.
