Businesses have been advised to undertake proper forecasting and planning in order to mitigate adverse tax exposures such as penalty and interest implications.
Senior Manager, Tax, ESG and Business Planning at KPMG, Gordon Dardey, explained that proper forecasting and planning would help businesses to collect data, study market trends, predict company’s future financial performances, gauge revenue which would ready them for unforeseen tax changes.
Mr Dardey was speaking at a Meet the Government Series recently, on the topic; “Mitigation Measures for Businesses while staying compliant.”
The virtual event was organised by the Ghanaian-German Economic Association (GGEA).
Efficiency
Mr Dardey listed some tips that businesses could follow to avoid tax implications.
He said it was important for businesses to adopt and embrace the new electronic changes implemented by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enhance efficiency of business activities and minimise operational wastages.
Additionally, Mr Dardey said they must review and restructure business operations to adopt the e-filing by the GRA, e-TCC, e-payments to enhance tax filing and payment efficiencies and reduce cost of operations.
Furthermore, he urged them not to shy away from consulting and seeking information on taxes when the need arose.
Increased efforts
Mr Dardey also noted that the government, as a means of ensuring increased efforts to tax compliance, had intensified tax audits to put taxpayers into the tax compliance net.
“GRA has increased its efforts on tax audits, they are doing this by resourcing their teams with experienced practitioners with varied backgrounds.
They also rely on international agencies for joint audits.
Some businesses have been in the news regarding tax audits,” he said.
Mr Dardey revealed that the government revenue mobilisation drive was anchored on the introduction of new taxes, new revenue administration measures and enforcement of tax compliance through tax audits.
“Examples include the increase in the existing Value Added Tax (VAT) rate from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent; converting national fiscal stabilisation levy to growth sustainability levy to cover all sectors; withholding taxes on gains on realisation of assets and liabilities; review of the deductibility of foreign exchange losses among others,” the senior tax manager said.
Growth and
Sustainability Levy
A Principal Revenue Officer, GRA, Theophilus Prince Tetteh, touched on the Growth and Sustainability Levy Act, 2023 (Act 1095) which imposes a special levy known as the Growth and Sustainability Levy to raise revenue for growth and fiscal sustainability of the economy and to provide for related matters.
“The levy is payable for each year of assessment on a quarterly basis and is due on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31.
Where a taxpayer basis period is not from January to December, the levy is payable at the end of each three-month period commencing from the beginning of the taxpayer’s accounting year,” he explained.
SOURCE: GraphicOnline
