Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New tax ID to track businesses

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is designing new Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) to be issued to registered businesses and individuals to ensure effective linkage with the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD), electronically, for easy tracking of taxpayers.

This will ensure that the GRA has access to the database of the RGD to access the details of registered businesses in the country.

The introduction of the TIN forms part of reforms under the integration and modernisation of all the revenue agencies which started with the passage of the GRA Act 2009, Act 791.

“The process of forging the erstwhile revenue agencies and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board into one entity is on course,” Mr. George Blankson, Commissioner-General of GRA, said in Accra at a media conference to review GRA’s revenue performance, current status and challenges of the integration and modernisation process of the revenue agencies.

The forum was also to reveal expectations of revenue inflows for the last six months of the year.

Mr. Blankson, who was optimistic of attaining the revised revenue target figure of ¢7.5billion (from ¢7.2 billion), said GRA is seriously committed to ensuring that in the second half of the year -- and in years beyond -- revenue mobilisation achieves greater efficiency, productivity and effectiveness.

The Authority recorded a 12.1 percent jump in half-year revenue for 2011 to GH¢3.9 billion, compared with GH¢3.5 billion for the same period last year.

The breakdown of the collection is as follows: Domestic Taxes (Direct Tax) recorded GH¢1.622.33 million, recording an excess of GH ¢150.17 million (10.2 percent). Indirect taxes recorded GH¢672.79 million, also showing an excess of ¢48.2million -- representing 7.7 percent.
Customs collection including petroleum also recorded GH¢ ¢1,633.93 million, an excess of GH¢ 224.56 -- representing 15.9 percent.

“Management will focus on areas such as the collection of self-employed income tax, the warehousing regime, transit regime, temporary importation of vehicles and debt management to shore up revenue.

“In addition, there will be sustained tax education for all taxpayers to ensure voluntary compliance, effective implementation of enforcement and compliance measures, effective monitoring of permits and quick examination of submitted returns.”

He revealed that a rapid deployment force has been put in place and is currently undergoing training to ensure effective tracking and interception of smuggled goods.

On the integration of the revenue agencies, the Commissioner-General emphasised that the reform involved pooling together into a Tax Administration Act all the administrative provisions in the customs, Value Added Tax (VAT) and income tax laws, and re-crafting the residual provisions into a separate charging Act for income tax, VAT and customs.

In this direction, a separate Value Added Tax bill has been crafted, gazetted and submitted to Parliament while work is currently going on new VAT regulations as well the final draft of the Tax Administration Act.

Also, work on the Internal Revenue Act has begun and terms of reference developed for the customs law.

Mr. Blankson said a key element of the reform process is the integration of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) offices, comprising the erstwhile Value Added Tax Service and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to enhance taxpayer convenience and also enable the staff to discharge their duties under the DTRD more effectively.

“This involves merging offices by co-locating staff of these erstwhile Revenue Agencies, movement of files of taxpayers, training of staff to perform on their schedules etc,” he said, adding that the Commission has identified nine offices within the Accra-Tema metropolis to serve as pilot sites for integration of DTRD offices.

Mr Blankson said effective from the last quarter of 2011, the first pilot office on the Spintex road will be opened, while others at Adabraka, Tema, Agbogbloshie, among others will be opened towards the end of the year. The DTRD offices will also allow for the segmentation of taxpayers into large, medium and small.

Institutions with annual turnover of GH¢5 million and above as well as specialist industries, no matter the turnover, would be among the Large Taxpayers; with companies with turnover above GH¢90,000 but below GH¢5 million in the medium category, while the small taxpayers would include those with annual turnover of GH¢90,000 and below.

“It is the expectation of management that through effective and efficient supervision by managers, and with the co-operation of the media, the GRA will exceed the revenue target for 2011,” Mr. Blankson remarked.

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