By Larry-Alans Dogbey

An inferno has ignited between Judicial Service and tax authorities over tax deductions from their salaries and other emoluments.

The judges and magistrates are crying foul over an attempt by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to do what the agency insists is a normal practice to mobilize resources for national development, describing it as an effort to violate their terms and conditions of service as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

Whilst IRS insists it is simply enforcing the tax law; the Internal Revenue Service Act 592 which requires all persons in private or public employment to pay income tax on their accommodation and transportation provided by their employer, the Judges and magistrates say the execution of the law with respect to their condition of service is unconstitutional. After months of haggling, the Ghana Judges and Magistrates Association presided over by Mr. Justice Akamba of the Court of Appeal, have dashed to the Castle with a petition knocking on President Mills’ door to rescue them by halting IRS else a very sacrosanct provision in the constitution would be breached.

According to the judges, Article 127(clause 5) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that “the salary, allowances, privileges and rights in respect of leave of absence, gratuity, pension and other conditions of service of a Justice of the Superior Court or any judicial officers or person exercising judicial power, shall not be varied to his disadvantage,” hence IRS is about to violate the law.

They argued that their condition of service as clearly spel t out in the constitution supersedes the IRS tax law of 2000, hence the IRS must obey the constitutional provision. At an emergency meeting attended by judges of the High Court and Court of Appeal held within the confines of the Supreme Court building, the judges also murmured that for the past six years, their salaries had not been increased despite a drastic rise in cost of living, and that tax deductions from their already meager salaries would be an additional financial stress on them. The judges were also unhappy with the Kufuor regime for doing nothing about Article 71 (clause 1) which directs that the salaries and allowances payable, and facilities and privileges available to key state officials including the Chief Justice and justice of the Superior Court, shall be determined by the President on the recommendation of a committee.

According to them unlike the Greenstreet Committee Report which takes care of all state officials, the Mrs. Chinery-Hesse Committee set up by the Kufuor regime was only interested in the executive and legislature but did nothing about the members of the judiciary. But officials of IRS told The Herald that the judges cannot be given an exceptional treatment under the tax law unless Parliament reviewed the law it passed some 10 years ago, or the Supreme Court, whose judges are also involved in the tussle, interprets the law vis-a-vis the position of the 1992 Constitution. In separate interactions with two officials of IRS; Messrs Kwame Owusu, Deputy IRS Commissioner and B. A. Danu, the District IRS Manager at Kimbu, they confirmed the disagreement between them and the judges, and explained that the decision is in line with the mandate of IRS, and the impasse can only be resolved if sections of the Act 592 of 2000 stipulating such tax deduction are amended.

According to them, the tax law makes it clear that apart from the President of the republic, all else must honour their obligation hence for now there is absolutely nothing IRS as an institution can do about the situation until the law specifically says the judges should be spared. Impeccable sources within the Judicial Services disclosed that hours after IRS served forms on the judges and magistrates, the judges, especially those at the Superior Courts got angry and hurriedly organized secret meetings where a decision was arrived to resist the tax agency’s attempt to deduct the taxes from their salaries. Insiders disclosed that the judges in their individual capacities started inundating IRS with petitions challenging the decision but upon realizing that IRS is unruffled by the constitutional technicalities, they collectively petitioned the Office of the President to caution IRS against the deductions.

This paper’s sources who sat through the meeting revealed that the Chief Justice Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood and other Supreme Court judges stayed away from the two emergency meetings except Justices Enim Yeboah and Baffour-Bonnie, but were behind the scenes lending their fullest support to the fight against IRS. The Herald leant that the issue if unresolved, would affect the pensions and gratuities of the judges and magistrates as the IRS could end up prosecuting judges, or cause their pensions to be withheld upon retirement or confiscate their properties for non-payment of tax.