Tax consultant, Francis Timore-Boi, has expressed the need for traders in the country to have proper documentation of their businesses, particularly tax returns.

According to him, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) must ensure it carries out its responsibilities aptly to avert further allegations of harassment as being alleged by GUTA.

He revealed that considering the composition of the customs unit, it is more like a “paramilitary wing” of the GRA, as such even Article 83, puts the unit as part of national security. In light of this, he explained that the function of the unit is clearly to facilitate trade and protect the revenue raked in from import and export.

Additionally, Mr Timore-Boi stated that the GRA will at all points, given the powers it has, try to enforce the law if it notices that traders are not complying with the law.

“I think that having proper documentation and doing the right thing is the solution. If you look at the accusation that GUTA is raising, especially on the import side, where they’re accusing Kumasi-based traders of extortions and all those things, GRA is saying that the traders are not declaring the proper goods and they’re not paying the right taxes.
Francis Timore-Boi

Commenting on what GUTA can do to ameliorate the situation, Mr Timore-Boi noted that if the allegations the business community is raising are true, then some form of engagement is needed. To this end, he emphasized that the GRA needs the business community to collect the taxes, and GUTA equally needs GRA to also operate when it comes to import.

“So, the best middle line is to do more of an engagement – I know they have petitioned the GRA, but I believe that there are more authorities within the chain that can be petitioned so that a middle ground can be found…”
Francis Timore-Boi

Proper education on tax compliance

Moreover, Mr Timore-Boi urged the GRA to also educate the business community more on tax compliance. He indicated that not all business folks are enlightened on their tax obligations to the country.

“Look at the current state of the VAT by the GRA officers – some people don’t know, somebody gets his money and believes that he can just set up a business. So, more education is needed. We need them to get the money, otherwise if businesses are not in Ghana, where are we going to get the tax revenue?”
Francis Timore-Boi

Meanwhile, the tax consultant expressed the need for GRA to enforce the classification of goods at the port. He revealed that the GRA has made the procedure such that the classification of goods is classified into three.

With this, he indicated that for every container which is red, per the GRA’s own assessment, it means the Authority has to conduct a physical examination, and as such, can’t be misclassification.

“If your container is green, then it means that there’s no risk and they consider factors such as the credibility of the importer, consistency of the goods and how homogenous the goods are so that at that point, it is only paper verification [that] is carried out.
“If it’s yellow, then it’s a mixture of both, so I think that unless the rules are relaxed at the ports, it’ll be hard for importers to say they have been misclassified. However, there’s the possibility that if there’s any misclassification or if something is going on and the GRA is not detecting it at the port, which means there’s some connivance at the port which needs investigations.”
Francis Timore-Boi

Commenting on whether GRA’s presence at business centers to ensure compliance of VAT is sustainable, Mr Timore-Boi stated that it is not sustainable. He indicated that GRA must find a better way of addressing issues relating to non-compliance of taxes.

“When they’re trying as much as possible to make sure people comply, they should find a more sustainable way of making people more compliant – possibly making the law punitive and then when you bring them into the net, they remain. Nowadays, taxation is more of a client-based approach than the old system of military approach.”
Francis Timore-Boi