Last week, officials announced that private medical practitioners and deputy sheriffs will need to start registering for this form of taxation as government moves to modernise tax administration and boost domestic revenue collection. BURS Acting Commissioner Domestic Tax, Segametsi Radibe-Michael, said the exemption had unintentionally placed an additional financial burden on private medical practitioners. Under the exemption introduced in 2023, private healthcare providers were not required to charge VAT on their services.
They were also unable to register for or recover VAT paid on business inputs, increasing the cost of running their practices. According to Radibe-Michael, government had to determine whether to maintain the exemption or reinstate value added tax to ensure private healthcare businesses could recover input VAT and remain financially sustainable. "The registration of private medical service providers is already underway,” she said during a presentation on Botswana's tax reforms. “Existing VAT-registered providers have been given the month of July to adjust their billing systems before they begin charging VAT on private medical services from 1 August 2026." Meanwhile, the Acting Commissioner Domestic Tax announced that deputy sheriffs will be brought onto the VAT register for the first time.
