{"id":431546,"date":"2017-10-24T00:03:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T00:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/10\/24\/vodafones-application-for-30-tax-waiver-turned-down\/"},"modified":"2017-10-24T00:03:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T00:03:19","slug":"vodafones-application-for-30-tax-waiver-turned-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/10\/24\/vodafones-application-for-30-tax-waiver-turned-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone’s application for 30% tax waiver turned down"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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In a dramatic turn of events in the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Vodafone Ghana tax dispute before the court, the Acting Commissioner-General of the GRA has refused to grant a waiver of the payment of 30 per cent of the value of tax in contention.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Vodafone dated October 4, 2017, obtained by ghanabusinessnews.com, the Acting Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti, said he will not grant the waiver requested by Vodafone.<\/p>\n

The Commissioner-General has discretionary powers to grant or deny waivers in tax.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In July 2017, the Transfer Pricing Unit of the GRA conducted a Transfer Pricing audit of the company for the 2012 \u2013 2016 years of assessment and found Vodafone liable of GH\u00a2162,468,361.90 in taxes.<\/p>\n

But Vodafone disagreed with the GRA\u2019s use of the Technology Transfer Regulations, 1992 (L.I. 1547) instead of the Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2188,) in the audit exercise, court documents show.<\/p>\n

In a back and forth correspondence between the two, the GRA counteracts Vodafone\u2019s assertions by arguing that after subjecting the company\u2019s transactions to the Technology Transfer Regulation 1992, (L.I. 1547), it established that the transactions do not meet the Arm\u2019s Length Test.<\/p>\n

Following several meetings to resolve the matter, the GRA asked Vodafone to submit its grievances in writing. That was done through its consultants, KPMG, the document states.<\/p>\n

However, Vodafone while waiting for a response from the GRA, it instead received an audit report with the tax assessment of GH\u00a2162,468,361.90 from the Transfer Pricing Unit of the GRA, which demanded that the stated assessment should be paid within 14 days. Vodafone however, objected to the demand.<\/p>\n

The telecoms provider then went to court asking the court to compel the Commissioner-General to determine its request for a waiver of the said payment of the 30 per cent of the amount which is to the tune of GH\u00a249 million.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in response to Vodafone Ghana\u2019s objections, the GRA has said among others in an Affidavit to the court that between 2012 and 2016, Vodafone Ghana has remitted GH\u00a22.1 billion to its parent company outside Ghana. The amount, the tax authorities say is about 30 per cent of the telecoms provider\u2019s turnover, adding that the company has not paid corporate income tax for six years. A fact that Vodafone officials have admitted arguing that it is because the company hasn\u2019t made any profit since it took over Ghana Telecoms in 2009.<\/p>\n

The matter has been adjourned twice already. The Court will, however, hear the case today after Vodafone Ghana prayed the court to adjourn to today October 23, 2017.<\/p>\n

Portions of the letter that stated the refusal of the tax waiver read\u00a0as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe refer to your application dated 25th August 2017, requesting for a waiver of the 30% of the tax objected to by your company.<\/p>\n

“We also refer to the Authority\u2019s letter of September 4th 2017, in which you were informed that the Commissioner-General was yet to consider a decision to exercise his discretionary power under subsection 6 of section 42 of the Ghana Revenue Management Act 2016 Act 915.<\/p>\n

“Having thereafter considered your said request of 25th August, 2017, the Commissioner-General has refused to grant your application for a waiver of the payment of the said 30% of the tax in dispute.<\/p>\n

“In line with subsection 5 of section 42 of the Ghana Revenue Management Act 2016 Act 915, you are advised to comply with the Authority\u2019s letter of 4th September 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a dramatic turn of events in the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Vodafone Ghana tax dispute before the court, the Acting Commissioner-General of the GRA has refused to grant a waiver of the payment of 30 per cent of the value of tax in contention. In a letter to Vodafone dated October 4, 2017, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":425394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nVodafone's application for 30% tax waiver turned down - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/10\/24\/vodafones-application-for-30-tax-waiver-turned-down\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Vodafone's application for 30% tax waiver turned down - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In a dramatic turn of events in the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Vodafone Ghana tax dispute before the court, the Acting Commissioner-General of the GRA has refused to grant a waiver of the payment of 30 per cent of the value of tax in contention. 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