GRA chases recalcitrant taxpayers

A 40-member Special Taskforce for Revenue Mobilisation has been launched with the core responsibility of enforcing tax payment compliance with all tax obligations. 
 

The Special Taskforce, instituted by the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) will be working in partnership with the Compliance, Enforcement and Debt Management Unit of the Authority and is aimed at enabling the GRA to attain its goal of generating enough revenue for the state, and also find ways of dealing with debtors that have long been on the Authority’s books.

B&FT has gathered that at least 80 percent of GRA’s debt is in the hands of Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs), and these have been on the books of GRA for quite some time; they are very aged. 

At a ceremony to officially launch the Taskforce in Accra, the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr. George Blankson, warned all recalcitrant taxpayers including companies, sole proprietors, professionals, and property owners who have not registered with the Authority or who have defaulted in the filing and payment of both direct and Income tax and indirect (Value Added Tax) are requested to immediately take steps to register their businesses and settle all outstanding liabilities. 

“To enforce compliance of paying tax with the tax laws, we are always mindful of the fact that the bulk of revenue we collect comes from voluntarily compliant taxpayers.”

He observed that the rate of compliance in relation to VAT has not been high in recent times, and that the Taskforce will help enforce tax compliance among taxpayers.

“The Taskforce will be going out from now.  We are serving notice that the Taskforce is going to come around; and all those who are not issuing VAT invoices for taxable sales by which they are required to issue invoices by law and are not doing so, when you are found to be engaged in any of these practices the full force of the law will be brought to bear.

“It is in our interest as taxpayers and as agents in the collection of tax, to ensure that we comply with the law in issuing VAT invoices, in filling of tax returns, and also in payment of taxes.”

He added: “The majority that are very tax compliant, declaring at the right time, making the payment at the time and at the right level, these are the bulk of taxpayers from whom we get our revenue.

“It is also important that we do not allow the few recalcitrant and delinquent taxpayers to get away with it; when we do we are setting the way for others to become non-compliant, hence this unpleasant task of sometimes having to apply the stick in order to ensure compliance.”

Mr. Blankson said: “I assure taxpayers that this exercise is not aimed at inflicting pain on any taxpayer; we are only to ensure that there is compliance with the tax laws of the country, and that taxpayers pay what is expected of them and follow due processes and procedures in carrying out the task of tax compliance -- which is an obligation imposed by the constitution and is found in every jurisdiction”.

Mr. Alex Asamoah-Bonti, acting Deputy Commissioner, Medium Taxpayer Office of the GRA, explained that for the optimal revenue mobilisation to be achieved all taxpayers must contribute their quota.

“As the institution tasked to mobilise revenue for national development, GRA is poised to use all legitimate means to collect taxes from both existing and potential taxpayers.

“GRA wishes to assure the taxpaying public that we continue to view them as partners in revenue mobilization, and as such this exercise by the Taskforce is aimed at getting recalcitrant taxpayers to comply with the tax laws and nothing else,” he said.