The GRA says the e-commerce tax initiative is to ensure compliance by all non-resident communities operating in Ghana to fulfill their tax obligations and enhance voluntary compliance.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has launched an E-commerce and Digital Service Registration Portal, as it anticipates mobilizing GHc 1.7 billion revenue from taxing online businesses beginning April this year to increase the chances of meeting its 2022 tax target.
The Authority is confident that taxing of businesses in the online space including, e-betting, Tonaton, Netflix, Facebook, Jumia, Alibaba, Amazon, among others, will improve the prospects of mobilizing the GHc 80.3 billion tax target it has set for this year.
Speaking to the B&FT at the official launch of the non-resident E-commerce and Digital Service Registration Portal in Accra, the commissioner-general of GRA, Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah said: “the portal is launched to enable non-resident persons to register and position themselves to start applying the VAT from April 1, 2022”.
The 2022 budget statement tasked the GRA to mobilize some GHc 2.7 billion from the digital economy, including all e-commerce, digital services, and online gaming.
However, Dr Owusu-Amoah said the GRA is confident of collecting some GHC1.7 billion out of the target, using the year 2022 as the beginning to test the grounds and gradually increase the revenue in subsequent years.
The e-commerce tax initiative, according to the Commissioner-General, forms an approach to ensuring compliance by all non-resident communities operating in Ghana to fulfill their tax obligations and enhance voluntary compliance.
The Value Added Tax Act, 2013 (Act 870) has made provisions for taxation of e-commerce and digital services, Dr Owusu-Amoah said, adding, “the system has been designed with the Central Bank to the extent that businesses that do not comply will have their payments automatically blocked”.
“To this end, it’s important that any social media or any platform that trades or sells online and gets payment from Ghana attempt to properly register on the e-commerce platform and pay the due tax,” he added.
