SD DOMBO UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

EBS 508: ADVANCE TAXATION

MANAGEMENT OF GHANA REVENUE AGENCIES
 Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA)

 Was established by Ghana Revenue Authority Act,

2009(Act 791)
 The Act states: that an act to establish the Ghana
Revenue Authority to replace the Internal Revenue
Service, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service and
Value Added Tax Service for the administration of taxes
and to provide for related purposes
 Body corporate with perpetual succession and a common
seal and may sue and be sued in its corporate name.
 The erstwhile tax agencies have also been replaced by
the Income Tax Act,2015(Act 896), the customs Act,
2015(Act 896), the Value Added Tax Act, 2013 (Act 870)
 Objectives of GRA
 The Provision of a Holistic approach to tax and
customs administration
 To reduce administration and Tax compliance cost
and provide better services to taxpayers
 To promote efficient collection of Revenue and the
equitable distribution of the Tax burden and ensure
greater transparency and integrity.
 To ensure greater accountability to Government
for the professional management of tax
administration.
 Objectives of the Authority Cont’

 To improve information linkage and sharing of

information among the Divisions of the Authority.
 To provide a one-stop service for tax payers for
the submission of returns and payment of Taxes.
 ( To provide common Tax procedures that enable
taxpayers to be governed by a single set of rules.
 To provide for other matters related to the
improvement of revenue administration.
 Functions of Ghana Revenue
Authority
 Assess and collect Taxes, Interest and penalties
on taxes due to the Republic of Ghana with optimum
efficiency.
 To pay the amounts collected into the
Consolidated Fund (at the Ghana
Central Bank) unless otherwise provided by this
Act and other Acts.
 Promotion of Tax compliance and Education.
 Advise district assemblies on the assessment and
collection of their revenue
 Make recommendation to the minister of finance on
revenue collection policy
 The Structure of the Authority

 The Authority is headed by a Commissioner General

who reports to a nine member GRA Governing Board.
 The Commissioner General is assisted in top
Management by three Commissioners who are
responsible for the management of the three Divisions
of the Authority namely
(a) Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD)
(b) Customs Division (CD) and
(c) Support Service Division (SSD).
 GRA ORGANOGRAM

GRA BOARD

Commissioner General
Internal audit
Legal
Commissioner Commissioner PR &
Domestic tax Commissioner
Support Services communicatio
Division Customs Division
Division n

Large Tax office Finance

Medium Tax office Operations Human resource
Small Tax office & field Preventive Research &monitoring
operations Policy and programs Information technology
Policy & programs
 The work of the Authority

 The Commissioner for Domestic Tax Revenue Division

is responsible for Income and Value Added Taxes
under the following Departments:
1. Large Taxpayers Office
2. Medium Taxpayers Offices
3. Small Taxpayer Offices and Field
Operations including Customer Service
Centers
4. Policy and programmes (Design, Monitoring
and Legislation at the operational level)
 The Commissioner for Customs Division is responsible
for Customs and international trade under the following
Departments.
 The work of the authority cont’

1. Operations (Revenue Stations, valuation

and classification, Laboratory, Oil
and Gas and
Warehousing)
2. Preventive (Revenue Stations and Frontier
Stations)
3. Policy and programme (Design, Monitoring,
Customs Policy and
Legislation) at the
operational level.
 The Commissioner for Support Services Division is
 The work of the authority cont’

1. Finance
2. Human Resource
3. Research, Planning and Monitoring
4. Information Technology Administration
 Each of the above Departments from the
erstwhile CEPS, IRS, VAT and RAGB has been
merged under the GRA.
 The work of the authority cont’

 Vision Statement: ‟To be a world class Revenue

Administration recognized for professionalism, integrity and
excellence‟‟
 Mission Statement: To mobilize revenue for national
development in a transparent, fair, effective and efficient
manner.
 GRA hopes to achieve the above through:
i. Professional and friendly client services
ii. Promotion of voluntary compliance
iii. Application of modern technology.
iv. Effective Border protection
v. A well trained, disciplined and highly motivated staff.
 The Core Values of GRA are:
Integrity and fairness in our service delivery Team work, innovation and
professionalism as our hallmarks
 The Logo of the GRA.
1. The Golden eagles represent a strong and visionary leadership with
relentless determination to optimize tax revenue while keeping a watchful
eye on non-compliant taxpayers.
2. The cowry represents national revenue. The scale with the cowries defines
our collective resolve to be fair, equitable and firm in the delivery of
service to our clients.
3. The “Blue” colour signifies the sky being the limit of our effort at revenue
mobilization.
4. The “Yellow” colour denotes the wealth of the nation (Ghana) from which
revenue is mobilized.
5. The “Green” coloured banner represents a sense of renewal, self control
and harmony in GRA.

The motto is INTEGRITY, FAIRNESS

 Domestic Tax Division
 The Large Tax Office(LTO): This office caters for
taxpayers with an annual turnover of GHS 5million
and above.
 The large tax office operates along the following
functions:
1. Taxpayer services/returns and payments
processing
2. Debt management, compliance monitoring and
enforcement
3. Audits and objections
 Domestic Tax Division Cont’

 The Medium Taxpayer Office(MTO): This is the tax office

that caters for the tax affairs of taxpayers within a turnover
bracket of GHS 90,000 up to but less than GHS5 million
 Taxpayers in this office are also on the self assessment
approach to taxation
 The MTO operates within three units:
1. The Taxpayer Services Unit
2. The Debt Management, compliance monitoring and
enforcement unit
3. The Audit Unit
 Domestic Tax Division Cont’
 Small Taxpayer Office(STO): This is the tax
office which caters for the all taxpayers with
annual turnover below GHS 90,000.
 The STO was established to:
1. Provide sufficient attention to the needs of small
taxpayers
2. Ensure improved delivery of services for small
taxpayers
3. Ensure better and improved efficiency and
productivity so resources are better utilized and
coordinated
4. Administer taxes along functional lines which
would allow for specialisation and
 Governing Body of the GRA

 The Board is the governing body of the authority

 Its composition consists of members appointed by
the president acting in consultation with the council
of state as provided for under article 70 of the
constitution:
1. A Chairperson
2. The Commissioner-General of the authority
3. A representative of the ministry of finance not
below the rank of a Director
4. A representative of the ministry of trade and
industry not below the rank of a Director
 Governing Body of the GRA

5. The Governor of Bank of Ghana or a

representative of the governor not
below the rank of Deputy Governor
6. Four other persons from the private sector two of
whom are women
 The president shall appoint these persons having a
consideration on:
Integrity
Knowledge
Competence
Expertise
Experience
 Functions of the Ghana Revenue
Authority Board
1. Supervision and monitoring of the authority in
performance of its functions
2. Formulation of administrative policy for the
smooth and efficient management of the authority
3. Determination of a scheme of service for the
staff of the authority
4. Perform any other function incidental to the
objects of the authority.
 Collection of tax by Distress and
Garnishment

 The Commissioner General has the power to

collect tax and debt due the authority by
distress(attachment) and by garnishment(issuing
of garnishee order)
 The Commissioner General may recover any
unpaid tax by distress proceedings against the
movable property liable to pay tax by issuing an
order in writing specifying
1. The person against whose property the proceedings
are authorised
2. The location of the property
3. The tax liability to which the proceedings relate
 Garnishment
Where the tax debtor has not paid tax which is due,
the Commissioner-General may, by notice in
writing, require any other person:
 Owing or who may owe money to the tax debtor
 Holding or who may subsequently hold money
for, or on account of, the tax debtor
 Holding or who may subsequently hold money on
account of a third person for payment to the tax
debtor
 Having authority from a third person to pay
money to the tax debtor, to pay the money to the
Commissioner-General on the date set out in the
notice, up to the amount of tax due
Madam Mercy trading enterprise owes the domestic tax revenue division
of the Ghana revenue authority an amount of GHS 65,000.00 being
withholding taxes on employee salaries for the period May 2017 to
December 2017. Papa T operate a beauty therapy business enterprise and
owes Madam Mercy an amount of GHS 65,000.00 which is due and
payable on January 15th 2018. what should the commissioner do?
The commissioner General may issue a notice to Papa T to pay to the
domestic tax revenue division the amount of GHS65,000.00 on 15 th
January 2018. The Commissioner General will serve Madam Mercy with
a copy of the notice issued.