GRA chases delinquent night businesses

The Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) Special Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce says it has retrieved GH₵107.257million from 2,407 delinquent taxpayers as its night operation to clamp down on tax evaders has intensified.

The Special Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce was instituted by GRA with the mandate to strengthen the tax collection machinery by ensuring full compliance with the provision of the tax laws and to shore-up tax revenue.

Mr. Theophilus Gaskin, Director of Special Revenue Taskforce Operations speaking at a distress action embarked on by the task force against some five delinquent businesses in Abeka, a suburb of Accra, said: “The GH₵07.257million retrieved during August and November 2015 is really a very huge figure, particularly coming from delinquent tax payers who hitherto could not be reached by our operational activities.”  

The taskforce is to enforce compliance with tax laws and get defaulting and potential taxpayers to honour their tax obligations.

The task force probed the issuance of Value Added Tax and National Health Insurance Levy (VAT/NHIL), invoices of businesses; the filing of VAT/NHIL, Pay as You Earn, returns by the due dates; and the payment of any outstanding tax liabilities owed the GRA, among other things.

Mr. Gaskin cautioned businesses that operate in tax hibernation that it is an offence to operate businesses in the night/dawn without adhering stringently to the full provisions of the tax laws.

“Businesses are hereby advised in their own interest to rush to the Tax Offices countrywide and voluntarily discharge their statutory tax obligations in accordance with the tax laws.

“Failure to comply with the directive will lead to the application of appropriate sanctions as enshrined in the tax laws,” he said.

Mr. Gaskin explained that following inauguration of the GRA Tax force in collaboration with the tax offices, have undertaken series of compliance activities aimed at taxpayers fulfill their tax obligations in conformity with the tax laws, adding that core objectives of the task force is to strengthen the tax collection machinery of the GRA by ensuring full compliance with the provisions of the tax laws and to shore-up tax revenue.

Recounting the night operations’ benefit, he indicated that the Taskforce, with assistance of the officers from the Ghana Police Service, began compliance monitoring exercises on businesses that engage in night/dawn trading activities are intended to rope into the tax net potential taxpayers who operate after normal office hours.

The targetted businesses that operate in the night/dawn and on the blind side of the tax administrators include night clubs and pubs, restaurants, casinos and other gaming businesses, evening schools, among others.

“The Task Force teams covered a section of Dansoman and Accra Central Business District between the hours of 6:30pm to12:30am (night) and continued the operations from 4:00 am to 7:30am, visited 17 businesses from 1^st to 2^nd December 2015. The night/dawn monitoring yielded tax revenue amounting to GH₵61,100. 

“Out of the 17 taxpayers visited by the Task Force, two of them are new taxpayers. Night/dawn monitoring exercise will not only be intensified in Accra but also extended to cover other regions in the country.”

At the end of the night operation that took place at Abeka Junction, three businesses risk being closed down if they fail to file their tax returns to the GRA after they were found culpable of various tax offences.