From the May 1, all the categories of taxes can be paid remotely, through the Ghana.gov platform and other automated channels.
According to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) the move is part of efforts to improve collections and remove all the challenges and human element that sometimes impede payments.
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, GRA Commissioner General, Rev Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah explained that “for the first time in history taxes will be paid by not by walking to any of our offices in town.”
He add that this will make easier for business to meet their tax obligations as well.
“You can also do it through all the banks on the Ghana.gov platforms” he host, George Wiafe.
The Commissioner-General also added that “we are even working to remove all tellers from officers in line with the full automation from next year”.
Property and rental tax collections
The GRA will also, from May, roll out an aggressive campaign to improve rental tax collections the collections of rental tax.
The Authority has already mapped majority of properties in the capital and other regions to aid the implementation of this tax. GRA is currently working with NACOB officials that will be deployed in the collecting these taxes. According to the Commissioner General, he is expecting some huge boost in revenue coming from this tax type in the coming months.
The Commissioner added that “there is a lot of revenue out there, especially when it comes to this tax type and we should find some innovative ways to get it ”we also expect “owners will come out to voluntarily notify the Ghana Revenue Authority about these properties to avoid paying penalties.”
Ghana Card and Revenue Mobilisation
The Ghana Revenue Authority from April 1 2021 started accepting the Ghana Card number for tax identification purposes, this is expected to fully replace the Tax Identification Number TIN after December 2021.
Figures from the Ghana Revenue Authority showed that as the end of 2018 we had about 1.5 million as registered tax payers, it migrated to 3.5 million and as at the end of 2020 we have about 6.5 million registered tax payers. The GRA is projecting that accepting the Ghana Card for tax identification purpose will bring on board some 13 million persons.
The Commissioner General noted with this significant increase registered numbers, “We are sure of meeting the projected revenue target of 55.8 billion cedis for this year.”
“We have done the simulations and we are sure and optimistic about how the Ghana card change the numbers and impacting on revenue ” He added.
As part of efforts to expand the tax net, the Authority is also working with various professional bodies, which will make tax payments as one of the requirements of member in good standing of a professional association like Certified Accountants.
Dealing with tax compliance challenge in the country
The Ghana Revenue Authority last year rolled out a lot of strategies aimed at encouraging tax compliance among businesses in the country.
One of them included the voluntary whistle blower reward strategy.
The program was aimed that allowing people to come forward and report persons and businesses that are not paying their taxes. But the Commissioner tells host George Wiafe that they have made a lot of progress with this program, whistle blowers getting as much as GHC40,000 as reward.
He maintained that all these initiatives will help improved collections and deal with the challenge were the country is not collecting enough revenue to march economic activities.
The extractive sector, ports and collections
The Ghana Revenue Authority has announced that it will be going after some the Multinational in the extractive sector that have evaded taxes.
“We will not hesitate to withhold the tax clearance certificates of these firms that have failed to pay taxes due the state,” he told JoyNews.
The Authority is working to plug all the loop holes in the Oil Marketing space to ensure that all the players pay the required taxes to the state.
According to the Rev Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah, these measures will ensure that every Oil marketing firm pays the required tax.
On Fuel smuggling, the Ghana Revenue Authority also added that they are currently working with all the security agencies to deal with this challenge adding that “we are committed to dealing with this challenge once and for all and that should be seen as promise.”
The Authority is also working with the Financial Intelligence Center to also deal with money laundering in the other sectors, whiles the Bank of Ghana concentrates on the banking sector.
On the ports the Commissioner General noted that it has made progress in dealing with all the concerns identified as well as closing all the gaps. This he believes will all contribute to improve revenue target by the end of this year.
New Revenue Measures outlined in 2021 budget
Rev. Owusu Amoah noted that the laws become effective as soon as parliament passes and gets the President’s approval. Therefore we should be coming out with the necessary communications on the how it will be applied for businesses and consumers.
He also added that the various tax types have some specific dates attached, and the public will be made known and how the implementation will be carried out. According ministry of finance the new tax measures outlined in the budget should bring in a little of ¢5 billion.
Revenue Performance for 2020
The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority attributes the growth in the revenue numbers for 2020 to change in approach and some strategies adopted by workers in mobilising revenue, coming on the back of a challenging business environment.
Government initially projected or target of ¢47.2 billion but was later revised to ¢42.7 billion which the Authority outperformance by ¢2.6 billion.
“One area that we targeted was the extractive sector, because of development on the international market, which ended up changing the numbers.”
He also noted that “We know that this year will not be different in terms of meeting the target”.
The GRA boss added that we plan implementing some of those strategies this year, which will greatly help with mobilizations adding that “We also expect some compliance measures to also impact the 2021 target.”
The Authority says it has also learnt its lessons in terms of the challenges encountered in 2020, like in the area of transfer pricing area as well the extractives will help change the numbers for this year.
Source: JoyBusiness
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