A recent social media poll conducted across multiple platforms reveals that most Ghanaian businesses believe the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is hurting rather than helping their operations, reigniting a debate about how tax enforcement impacts entrepreneurship and job creation in the country.
The survey, conducted by Business Outlook with Vivian Kai Lokko, asked respondents whether the GRA’s activities were helping, hurting, or doing both to businesses. Results varied significantly across platforms, with informal sector operators expressing the most negative views.
On Instagram, where many micro-entrepreneurs, traders and side hustlers are active, 100 percent of respondents said the GRA is hurting businesses. TikTok users, who tend to represent similar demographics, showed 79 percent saying the authority hurts businesses, with only 21 percent believing it helps.
LinkedIn users, typically professionals and formal business operators, presented more mixed opinions. Among this group, 56 percent said the GRA hurts businesses, 33 percent said it both helps and hurts, and 11 percent believe it is helping.
On X (formerly Twitter), respondents were split evenly, with 38 percent saying the GRA hurts businesses, 38 percent saying it both helps and hurts, 19 percent unsure, and only six percent saying it helps.
The findings suggest that businesses closer to daily cash flow pressures and informal trading expressed more negative views of the tax authority. This pattern indicates the problem may not be taxation itself but rather how tax enforcement is experienced by different categories of businesses.
The survey results emerged after businessman and New Patriotic Party (NPP) politician Kennedy Agyapong made strong statements in December 2025 during an outreach engagement in the Central Region. Agyapong called on the GRA to stop intimidating entrepreneurs and instead support job creation efforts.
“The GRA should stop treating Ghanaian businessmen like criminals,” Agyapong stated. “When people try to build companies in this country, they go through too much frustration. How do we expect to create jobs when the very institutions meant to help are scaring business owners?”
The Assin Central Member of Parliament is not the first prominent figure to raise such concerns. In March 2024, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia accused the authority of harassing businesses under the guise of tax collection during an interaction with members of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the problem stems from the GRA’s practice of setting unrealistic revenue targets for its officers. This situation, he argued, results in overtaxing existing businesses instead of expanding the tax base to include more taxpayers.
“They are harassing businesses. That harassment is coming from the sort of targets that are created at their office,” Dr. Bawumia explained. “They are setting unrealistic targets. Because the tax base is narrow, officers are given monthly targets and are left wondering where to find the money.”
The Vice President added that officers often return to the same taxpayers already paying taxes and come up with new reasons for them to pay more, rather than bringing new businesses into the tax net.
Following Bawumia’s March 2024 statements, the GRA denied allegations of harassment. Assistant Commissioner Emelia Assam, speaking at the Oxfam Tax Dialogue on March 21, 2024, stated that no tax officer authorized to carry out compliance work is expected to harass any client.
“There is no harassment with tax collection. GRA staff don’t go out to harass,” Assam said, adding that the authority has compliance issues to address daily but does so professionally.
The Ghana Revenue Authority Workers’ Union (GRAWU) also expressed displeasure with Bawumia’s characterization of their work. In a press statement, the union said it found the Vice President’s comments unfortunate and considered them an attack on the efforts of hardworking staff.
However, the Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) supported Bawumia’s assessment. In a March 2024 statement, TAGG said its members continue to face extortion and harassment by GRA officials.
“The Vice President couldn’t have said it any better because his pronouncement is a true reflection of daily happenings in the business community,” TAGG stated. The group criticized the deployment of multiple task forces to monitor traders when the GRA could leverage cutting edge systems instead.
Small and medium sized enterprises contribute approximately 70 percent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for roughly 92 percent of all businesses in the country as of 2024, according to economic data. This makes their survival and growth a national economic priority.
Business Outlook’s poll findings indicate that many enterprises question whether the current tax system understands their cash flow realities, supports growth during difficult economic cycles, and treats them as partners in development rather than targets for extraction.
When compliance feels intimidating instead of enabling, the consequences extend beyond frustration to include slower business growth, job losses and discouraged entrepreneurship. The perception gap between how the GRA views its enforcement activities and how businesses experience those activities appears significant.
The broader debate centers on whether Ghana’s tax system can simultaneously collect revenue efficiently while building trust with the businesses generating that revenue. Trust appears to be a missing component in current relationships between many taxpayers and the tax authority.
For businesses operating in Ghana’s informal sector, which comprises a substantial portion of economic activity, the challenges are particularly acute. These enterprises often lack sophisticated accounting systems, operate on thin profit margins, and face irregular cash flows that make compliance with formal tax requirements especially difficult.
The survey responses suggest that Kennedy Agyapong’s December 2025 comments resonated with widespread sentiments among business owners rather than representing an isolated political statement. The consistency of negative perceptions across different platforms, particularly those dominated by smaller businesses, points to systemic concerns about how tax enforcement affects entrepreneurial activity.
Tax experts note that effective revenue collection requires balancing enforcement with taxpayer education, support services and proportionate penalties. Systems that rely primarily on aggressive audits and penalties without corresponding support mechanisms risk damaging the business environment they depend upon for sustainable revenue generation.
Ghana’s tax base remains narrow relative to the size of its economy, with a significant portion of economic activity occurring outside formal tax structures. Expanding this base requires not only enforcement but also making compliance accessible and worthwhile for businesses currently operating informally.
The ongoing tension between revenue mobilization targets and business sustainability raises questions about long term economic development strategies. If existing taxpayers consistently feel pressured rather than supported, efforts to formalize more businesses and expand tax compliance may face resistance.
For many Ghanaian businesses, particularly those in the small and medium enterprise sector, the fundamental question is not whether they should pay taxes but whether the system helps them survive long enough to generate taxable income consistently. Until that concern is addressed through policy and practice, negative perceptions of the GRA are likely to persist regardless of the authority’s stated intentions.
The Business Outlook survey, while not a scientific study with controlled sampling, provides insight into how different segments of Ghana’s business community perceive their interactions with tax authorities. The strong negative sentiment among informal sector operators suggests an urgent need for dialogue about how tax enforcement can support rather than hinder economic growth objectives.