Government to raise GHC 1.7bn from e-commerce tax
Government is set to rake in some GHC1. 7 billion as tax revenue from non-resident Ghanaians who undertake online businesses and electronic commerce [e-commerce].
This comes on the back of the request by the Ghana Revenue Authority to begin the mobilization of taxes on these electronic channels from next month.
This will be on a pilot basis and the first phase of the initiative as GRA prepares to include all local firms as well.
According to the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Rev. Dr. Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, all is set to tax online businesses of non-resident Ghanaians.
He noted that the move is to ensure that the country mobilises adequate revenue and widens the tax net for national development.
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He further indicated that, although this is just a pilot phase, the country is likely to generate some 1.7 billion cedis from the tax for the first year of implementation.
He said this while speaking at the launch of the E-Commerce Portal for Tax Registration and Compliance.
“The portal that has been launched to track and trace earnings of social media and online businesses is going live before the April 1st, 2022 deadline for the beginning of the collection.
“This non-resident initiative will serve as a pilot to the overall aim of taxing all social media and online operations in the country”, he explained.
He is confident affected businesses will comply with the directive and file their tax obligations through the electronic portal.
“We have identified more businesses that fall under this category and we’re hopeful that they will comply because it is their civic duty”.
“This will include all online platforms and social media handles that gets some form of profit from their operations here in Ghana. It is a move that will increase our tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and also improve revenue generation for the 2022 budget”, he explained.
All non-compliant companies will be blocked from doing any profitable business in Ghana through a system operated in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana.
Also known as the social media tax, this tax mechanism will capture businesses on Facebook, Whatsapp, Netflix, Amazon, among others.
