GHANA’S COUNTRY HIGHLIGHTS A PRESENTATION AT THE 15TH VADA CONFERENCE 28TH-30TH NOVEMBER 2012 ARUSHA TANZANIA

Consolidation of Tax Administration laws VAT law has been submitted to parliament. Tax Administration Law are in the final stages of drafting(this will consolidate all the tax administration laws). This will make reference less complicated for all stakeholders.

ROLL OUT OF FIELD OFFICES Ghana Revenue Authority has rolled out all the proposed tax offices in the Greater Accra region. There are : One(1) Large Tax Office (LTO) Seven (7) Medium Tax Offices (MTO) Twelve (12) Small Tax Offices (STO)

Threshold Creteria LTO-Five million Ghana cedis ($2,631,578.95) and above and some specific sectors (e.g. mining, banking etc) MTO- Ninety thousand ($47,368.42)to five million ($2,631,578.95)Ghana cedis. STO- Ninety thousand Ghana cedis ($47,368.42)and below

Future roll out It is projected that the rest of the offices in the country will be rolled out in 2013.

Re registration of Taxpayers As part of the current tax reforms all taxpayers and individuals are being registered/re registered. This exercise among others will help eliminate multiple tax identification numbers (TIN) use by some individuals and companies to evade paying taxes

Sensitisation Before Rollout A training programme was organised for Heads of MTOs and STOs. Heads who have background in direct tax were taken through a programme in indirect tax(VAT), whilst those with background in indirect tax were taken through programme in direct tax.

There are plans for refresher courses and for updates later. The Training Unit has lined up training programme for other operational staff at different levels of the Authority to enable them fit into their new positions.

Challenges of integration Some taxpayers still prefer to pay at their old tax offices. Some of them indicated distance of new offices Traffic situation resulting in being in long queues before reaching new offices

ICT The rolled out offices are operating on different information communication platform (ICT) regarding direct and indirect taxes. This defeats one of the aim of integration to share data effectively. It is expected that the new software (TRIPS) when fully deployed in 2013 would solve the above challenges

Thank You