GRA cautions tax defaulters

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has indicated strongly that it will embark on a rigorous exercise to retrieve all outstanding tax owed it by defaulting firms. 

 

“More than 100 corporate entities have been defaulting on taxes owed to the state. The Authority will ensure that they comply with the country’s tax laws and honour their tax obligations promptly,” Mr. Samuel Bentil, Chief Revenue Officer, said in a caution to delinquent companies in Accra.

He was leading a team from the GRA and the Ghana Police Service which paid unannounced visits to five establishments and locked up two of them – Glade Digital Limited and Blackgold Limited – for non-payment of Valued Added Tax (VAT)  amounting to GH¢20,000.

Glade Digital Limited had an outstanding tax of GH¢7,251.74 since 2011, while Blackgold owed GH¢12,949 since 2010.

Three other corporate entities, Best Time Press, Quickfit Service Centre and Rockfield Limited, which the team visited as part of the action, promptly issued cheques to settle their indebtedness to avoid their offices being locked up. 

The five companies together owed GH¢61,866.28 and have been defaulting on VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes due the Authority between 2009 and 2011.

Mr. Bentil said the companies have been indebted to the Authority for far too long, and this called for drastic action after several monthly reminders. The Authority will continue to ensure that defaulters become law abiding, he added.

He said some of the companies had consistently failed to pay the monies owed despite numerous reminders and appeals and this had led to the distress action being mounted in line with the Value Added Tax Act.

 “It is a painful exercise but there is no other option to recover the amount owed than this distress action.

“As we speak they have not paid anything, so it has become imperative for us to undertake this exercise. This is a huge amount of money; if this money is paid it will go a long way to solve some of the nation’s problems.”

The action, he explained, was not an attempt by the GRA to collapse businesses but to enforce the VAT law, adding the action was taken because the GRA noticed that the companies were in business and had been filing their returns. 

“Our records show that they are in business, but they are refusing to honour their tax obligations. VAT is a consumption tax, and once they are making sales it is imperative that they comply with the country’s tax law. The action was the last tool of mobilisation open to GRA to collect monies owed to it.”

He said the companies would be given an ultimatum to pay, and if they failed the Authority would take custody of their assets and sell them to defray the taxes owed.