Filing of Tax returns must be made easier - Agambila

Accra, April 26, GNA - Dr Gheysika Adombire Agambila, Deputy Minister of Environment and Science, on Wednesday urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make the procedures of filing tax returns more transparent and less cumbersome to attract more people to contribute their quota in developing the country.

He said the process of completing the tax form was not clear and it was difficult to determine what one's tax liability was and thereby making it difficult for people to complete the form on their own. Dr Agambila urged the Service to learn from the developed countries where information on tax returns and the amount involved were made clear to the understanding of the larger public.

"When you do it this way many people will be encouraged to voluntarily file their returns without depending on the IRS officials to tell them how much they are supposed to pay as tax," he said. The Deputy Minister said this at the IRS Headquarters, where he and some other Ministers and Deputy Ministers had gone to file their tax returns.

The Ministers were Mr Felix Owusu Adjapong, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs; Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Environment and Science; Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development and President's Special Initiatives (PSI).

Mr Agyemang Manu, a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in charge of Revenue, and Mr Clement Eledi, a Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of crops also filed their returns. The exercise formed part of the Service's Revenue Week celebration, which started from Monday, April 24 and ends on Sunday, April 30. Mr Bartels urged the private sector to actively participate in the exercise to enable the Government to mobilise enough money to undertake development projects.

"It is these little monies collected that becomes big to be used for infrastructure development such as electricity, water and roads and those in the private sector should see themselves as partners and file their tax returns," he said.

Professor Fobih said already the sectors under the Ministry were paying dividends to Government but those involved in the informal sector - lands, forestry to some extent and those engaged in informal activities should honour their tax obligation because they derived benefits from Government services.

He also urged the IRS to clear the air about official vehicles and residence of government appointees so that they would be encouraged to file their returns correctly.

Mr Joseph Fred Odartey Blankson, Acting Commissioner of IRS, said the exercise, which was going on in all district offices throughout the country, would end officially on Friday.

He said according the Income Law, the year of assessment ends in every last week in the first quarter of the year and that of December 2005 would end on Friday, April 28.

Mr Blankson said the Service registered about 1.4 million taxpayers for the 2004 - assessment year out of which about 70 per cent filed their returns.

He said 1.2 million people registered were personal income taxpayers and urged the public especially the private sector to file their returns early and accurately to ensure the success of the exercise. Mr Agyemang Manu said rent incomes were taxable under the laws of the country and urged the IRS to widen the tax base to cover individuals who rented out their premises.

Federated Commodities Limited, a licensed cocoa buying company, CDH Insurance Company Limited and five of their workers were among those who filed their returns as at the time the Ghana News Agency News left the premises of the IRS.