Economic hardship, corruption impeding tax compliance
Tax compliance research conducted by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) indicates that businesses are shying away from voluntarily paying taxes due to the rising cost of operations and perceived corruption in the Ghanaian economy.
According to the local chapter of Transparency International, the Ghana Revenue Authority will have to step up efforts in attracting people to file their returns.
Finance Manager at the GII, Benedict Doh, told Journalists that domestic revenue mobilisation is heavily under threat if the situation continues.
“Something prevalent in our findings is that businesses think there are increases in corruption cases, especially from many reports published by organisations and they think there is so much mismanagement in the economy. Another critical concern was the foreign exchange issue which has compounded the cost of doing business in the country”.
“Many respondents are also of the belief that the exchange rate has caused so much to their businesses and escalated the cost of borrowing. They are also of the view that some businesses borrow to finance their projects, so the economic challenges is making it difficult to make profit and declare tax returns” he further said.
The findings was presented at a national tax policy forum by the GII and Australian Aid under the theme: “exploring innovative measures to promote voluntary tax compliance”.
According to the research, voluntary tax compliance has reduced significantly as well as trust in tax officers.
Benedict Doh added that businesses are feeling the economic hardship and not willing to voluntarily pay tax.