Businessmen schooled on tax laws

Accra, 20 March, GNA - The Commissioner of the VAT Service, Mr Anthony Ewereko Minlah, said on Thursday that his outfit would continuously review the impact of any provision of the VAT Act and make recommendations for amendments to allow for smooth operations of the service.

Mr Minlah said for the service to be successful, it must continue to enhance its partnerships with business and professional organizations, identify, analyze and address areas of non-compliance. The Commissioner was delivering a speech at a forum organized by the Ghana Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and Culture (GHANECC) and Ghanaian German Economic Association in Accra on the theme: "Overcoming challenges of doing business in Ghana, tax problems-the new VAT regime, consequences for medium to large scale Retailers." Mr Minlah said the VAT operated in a complex environment making compliance a challenge.

Elaborating on the new VAT flat rate scheme, Mr Minlah said it had a marginal 3% rate applicable to the selling price of items supplied and restricted to only retailers of taxable goods. The scheme covers all taxable goods under the current standard VAT Scheme and did not allow input tax credit and operators were not entitled to input tax claims. Touching on the consequences, he said medium and large scale retailers were not qualified to claim input tax since the 3% represented the net or effective tax rate, implying that retailers should only charge the VFRS rate of 3% on all supplies of goods and account same to the VATS.

Mr Sam Kwesi Yenkyera, Assistant Commissioner of Customs Excise and Preventive Service, said the service was working to cut down on delays in clearing of goods at the ports. However, he said, most delays in clearance were caused by non-compliance by importers to rules and regulations. The Service was therefore working with various stakeholders to ensure voluntary compliance through modernization of processes that allowed forms to be submitted on line.