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

2. 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.

3. 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)

4. 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

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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. Thank You