Accra, Aug. 9, GNA – The
Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti
has called on businesses and all income earning persons to take advantage of
the tax amnesty policy before the expiry date of August 31, 2018.
Speaking at a press briefing on tax
policy measures in the 2018 Mid-year budget review, Mr Nti warned that GRA
after the end of the expiry date, would be very tough on all tax defaulters’
and evaders.
“Let me use this opportunity to
remind businesses and all income earning persons that GRA will go after all
persons who failed to take advantage of the opportunity. All the appropriate
sanctions provided in the various tax acts including prosecutions will be
visited on tax evaders and defaulters to make sure that all citizens contribute
their quota to nation building,” he said.
The Tax Amnesty Act, 2017 Act (955),
provides an opportunity for all income-earning Ghanaians to regularise their
tax affairs with the GRA to put businesses on a legitimate footing, and avoid
sanctions and legal consequences in the future.
It applies to taxpayers and potential
taxpayers who have defaulted in registration with GRA, filing of tax returns by
due dates, paying taxes on due dates and making full disclosure of Financial
Reporting, to discharge their obligations voluntarily in exchange for
forgiveness of and /or in some cases the tax, interests and penalties without
fear of prosecution.
On the tax policy measures, Mr Nti
said the changes were the restructuring and delinking of the national health
insurance levy and the Ghana Educational Trust Fund levy from the main Value
Added Tax (VAT), and the introduction of a new band in the personal income tax
rates.
This means that effectively, the rate
for the Value Added Tax (VAT) is 12.5 per cent for the VAT Standard Rate
Scheme.
However, he said, in accordance with
the VAT (Amendment) Act 954 2017, entities that were recently appointed as VAT
Withholding Agents by the Commissioner-General, would continue to account for
withholding VAT/NHlL/GETFL at 7 per cent of the taxable value to GRA.
He said it was important for the
public to know that with the amendments, VAT registered taxpayers could not
claim the NHIL and the GET FUND levies charged on their purchases as input tax.
Mr Nti said a modified
Commissioner-General’s invoice on which VAT and NHIL and the GET FUND LEVY were
collected had been designed and will soon come into use.
“Pending the coming into use of the
modified Commissioner-General’s invoice, taxpayers can continue to use the old VAT
invoice,” he said.
He said taxpayers authorised to use
computer generated invoices are to modify their accounting software to
accommodate these levies.
GNA