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PARLIAMENT PASSES TAX AMNESTY BILL

By Jeorge Wilson Kingson
Parliament last week amended the Internal Revenue Act to bring into existence the Internal Revenue (Tax Amnesty) Act, 2011.

The purpose of the Bill is to grant tax amnesty to persons who have failed to file tax returns or pay taxes as required under the Internal Revenue Act, 2000 (Act 592). Such persons are to be granted amnesty from paying penalties and interests in respect of taxes due payable.

The new law specifies the categories of persons who can benefit from the tax amnesty, including persons who register with the Ghana Revenue Authority or the Registrar General’s Department, those who submit returns or amended returns and those who pay taxes assessed and taxes outstanding for the qualifying period.
It also provide for the scope of the provision of the amnesty. It makes provision for a tax amnesty for persons who have previously registered with the GRA but have not renewed the registration. It further provide an amnesty for persons who have registered with the GRA but have not submitted returns or made full disclosure of incomes as required for a specified period, as well as persons liable to pay tax but who have not previously registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority.

In recommending the passage of the bill, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, James Klutse Avedzi noted that with the rebasing of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it has become imperative for measures to be put in place to improve the tax revenue. The new law according to him will help in that direction by contributing to widen the tax net.

“The committee was informed that another motivation for the introduction of the bill is to free people from the fear of being made to pay interests and penalties on the amount of taxes owed, so that they can come forward to regularize their tax position with the Ghana Revenue Authority” The Committee’s report stated.

It was also noted that the GRA is currently embarking on an electronic registration of taxpayers, as such; there is the need to grant an amnesty to qualified persons so that such persons would voluntarily own up and be captured in the registration exercise to make the registration exercise meaningful.

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