GRA cautions rural banks over non-payment of VAT

Mr Roger Kumah, the Head of Medium Taxpayers Office of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), in Ho, has cautioned rural banks in the Volta Region over the non-payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) charged on financial services rendered to their clients.

He said investigations by the Medium Taxpayers Office indicated that a good number of active rural banks in the Region were not complying with the VAT Act 2013 (Act 870) and warned that the Authority could “descend heavily” on the banks soon.

Mr Kumah was addressing a tax education seminar in Ho, on Wednesday, after series of road sessions aimed at “empowering taxpayers for voluntary compliance.”

He said it was an offence for the banks and other institutions collecting VAT on behalf of the GRA to keep the returns for more than six months and urged them to comply with the law to avoid sanctions.

Mr Kumah advised the banks to put systems in place to track financial services that fell under the VAT Law and pay that element to the Authority to avoid being surcharged by the Authority.

He said the new VAT Act was friendly and urged the citizenry to get familiarised with it and comply with the provisions.

The participants were taken through the VAT Act 2013 (Act 870) and Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896).