Francis Timore Boi , a tax analyst, has disclosed that the replacement of the Tax Identification Number (TIN) with the Ghana Card number will not result in growth of domestic revenues.
According to him, this will ensure that new taxpayers actually pay their taxes.
His comment follows government’s announcement on the replacement of the TIN with the Ghana card number. This forms part of efforts to identify and rope in more eligible taxpayers, particularly individuals in the informal sector.
This TIN replacement exercise commenced on April 1, 2021. Following this, expectations are high to witness country’s domestic revenues growth.
That notwithstanding, Timore Boi, believes that an increase in tax revenues is dependent on how GRA effectively take advantage of the development.
“We have to remind ourselves that the fact that someone has a national card doesn’t mean automatically the person will begin to walk to the GRA office and say they want to pay their tax. The first step in the revenue enhancement is to be able to identify all the eligible taxpayers”.
Enforcement of sanctions on flouters of tax payment
Additionally, Mr. Timore Boi explained that the GRA must equally ensure strict adherence and enforcement of laws which will sanction individuals who default in payment of taxes.
He further revealed that process will enable the enrolment of a greater chunk of the informal sector in the system.
“We already have a system in place with penalty which attempts to sanction people who fail to register for taxes. But for some reason, we have been applying it to only companies; but for individuals we have neglected it for a very long time. The purpose is to rope in a lot of informal people. And so we hope that this will be able to bring a lot of people into the tax net”.
NIA to register individual who do not possess Ghana Card
Currently, GRA has revealed in a statement release that registration officials of the National Identification Authority are in 14 GRA offices. This is to help register individuals who do not possess a Ghana card.
They include the Registrar General’s Department at Accra, Taxpayer Service Center at Adabraka in Accra. They are also located at Taxpayer Service Center at Asokwa in Kumasinand Taxpayer Service Center at Cape Coast.
Also, registration officials of the NIA will as well be in 63 other GRA locations to serve all taxpayers.
The statement also said there will be a transition period from April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. It explained that both the TIN and Ghana Card PIN may be used as the unique number for tax identification purposes.
An online portal has also been created on the GRA website for existing taxpayers who have registered and have been issued with the Ghana card to link their Ghana card PIN to their TIN.
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