Dr. Alex Ampaabeng, a tax analyst, has advised government to ensure that taxes from Ghanaians are put to good use. According to him, Ghanaians are interested in their monies being put to good use.
He further explained that government must strategically implement salient measures to curb the issue of corruption rife within the country’s tax regime.
“There should be visible signs of tax payments. There are some particular taxes that we can earmark, so people will be able to see. For example, you go to the market and collect those market tolls; market women or men go out to do their business and when it rains, it is muddy everywhere”.
Additionally, Dr. Ampaabeng recounted the numerous complaints made by tax payers over the issue of fariness in payment of taxes. To address the problem, he called for a more transparent and standardised scheme of payment.
“There are a lot of complaints and issues around the tax. It is extremely regressive. If you want people to comply, people want to be sure that the rate at which they are paying compared to their peers is also good”.
Empower Ghanaians to pay taxes
Touching on the issue of tax education, Dr. Ampaabeng urged government to ensure “robust tax education” in a bid to reassure tax compliance.
His comments follow a report issued by Afrobarometer on the desire of Ghanaians to pay taxes. Per Afrobarometer’s survey, Ghanaians are willing to pay taxes. Analysis from the survey also revealed that “citizens are more supportive of taxation” if they reckon government is delivering basic services.
Similarly, the report which surveyed over 2,400 adults also revealed that 84 percent of Ghanaians believe that some tax officials are corrupt.
Commenting on this, Dr. Ampaabeng corroborated Afrobarometer’s stance on the willingness of Ghanaians to pay their taxes. However, he asserted that, albeit, some Ghanaians would genuinely want to pay taxes, they are not empowered to do so.
He explained that this is due to the fact that they have not received adequate information on what the taxes will be used for.
Dr. Ampaabeng said this included “telling them how much we are generating and how much we are spending.”
Institute measures to improve collection of taxes
Elsewhere, a Research analyst at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), following the Afrobarometer’s report, has tasked government to come out with a plan to ensure that all citizens participate in paying taxes, through education.
According to him, proper education and transparency on what taxes are will better equip and inform judgements from Ghanaians.
“They need to know how much they are due to pay; It must come at a low cost. People want to see the corruption we find in the system reduced because they can’t pay their money for it to be taken out by a few people. So, they want the authority to improve its image in terms of anti-corruption and the things they put in place to make sure that the taxes that we collect do not go down the drain”.
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