The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU-Ghana) has charged the government to turn attention to the legal profession with taxation if the country wants to increase revenue generation.
General Secretary, Solomon Kotei says workers in other sectors would get some respite if revenue collection agencies widen the tax net to cover all trades and professions.
Tax is based on income and the profession of the person making the money has no bearing at all on taxation.
Income tax is among the domestic taxes administered by the Ghana Revenue Authority. Such taxation includes the corporate tax paid by companies on their profits in the year; the Personal Income Tax for the self-employed and the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) contributions, which are withholdings from salaries of employees.
According to the ICU, workers in the formal sector are unfairly taxed whilst other professionals enjoy unlimited tax holidays, particularly citing the law chambers and the court system.
“I’m yet to see lawyers who pay tax to this economy”, charged Mr. Kotei. “We engage lawyers and we don’t see their tax returns and if you go to the courts, you see lawyers charging clients and they taking the money direct into their pockets”.
The Union has set an agenda to engage employers, especially government, to ease the tax burden on workers by targeting all professions with taxation.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh