Make tax payment processes convenient for businesses – Expert to GRA

Tax Law Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, Mr. William Owusu Demitia, has called on the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), to as a matter of urgency, review their existing tax payment procedures and processes to make it more convenient for taxpayers to fulfil their statutory obligations amidst the slow in business as a result of COVID -19.

Mr. Demitia, made the call when his he delivered via Zoom, the sixth lecture of the fourteen (14) week-long “Law and Ethics Web Series”, under the theme, “Tax Implications of Covid-19”, on Wednesday the 10th of June 2020. The online seminar is organized jointly by the African Centre on Law and Ethics (ACLE) and the African Centre of International Criminal Justice (ACICJ), both based at the GIMPA Faculty of Law.

“By our system, if you want to pay tax, you must close your shop, walk to the nearest GRA office, probably be in a queue, in order to fulfil your tax obligations. Now ask yourself, who will do that. Why would I close up shop, just to fulfil my tax obligations? What would I get from it? We have not made it so convenient for them to as it were, comply with their tax obligations” Mr. Demitia said.

He intimated that it is time for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to introduce real-time technological options and platforms to allow taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations as a stop gap measure to aid the business community to meet their tax obligations in time and as conveniently as possible.

Law and Ethics Web Series

The Law and Ethics Web Series begun on Wednesday the 6th of May 2020 on the online meeting platform, Zoom at 2pm. The pending presentations on Jun 17, Jun 24, Jul 1, Jul 8, Jul 15, Jul 22, Jul 29, and Aug 5, 2020, will come on as scheduled. Interested persons can join any of the upcoming sessions by visiting the Zoom application and using the Webinar ID:848-2795-0621 or https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84827950621.

Various speakers have been lined up for the exercise by the organizers. The series is being coordinated by Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Budu, a Lecturer and Head of Law Centers at the GIMPA Faculty of Law. The 10th of June 2020 session was moderated by Mrs. Clara Kasser-Tee, Lecturer at the GIMPA Faculty of Law, under the distinguished patronage of the Rector of GIMPA, Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, and the Honorific Dean of the GIMPA Law Faculty, Justice Sir Dennis Adjei.