The new Ghana income tax law will ease the tax compliance in the country, observes Healy Consultants

Jan. 2, 2016 - PRLog -- Act 896, 2015 which seeks to facilitate and encourage voluntary compliance by tax payers with the country’s tax law was officially launched by Mona Quartey, the Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Finance.

Speaking at the launch, Mrs Quartey stated that the new act encapsulates the international best practices and that the growth in the country’s business environment calls for a tax administration that is abreast with the international changing trends.

“The new act has reorganised the residual provisions in Act 592, simplified it and made it user-friendly, while retaining provisions that are peculiar to income tax administration,” she said.

“Ghana’s problems seem to have been compounded by a direct tax act, the Internal Revenue Act 2000 Act, an Act which was complex and nor user friendly. There is therefore the need to replace it with a new Act which takes into consideration international best practice” she added.

According to the deputy minister the tax administration’s main responsibility is to administer the country’s tax laws fairly and impartially to all traders and also minimize the cost and burden on taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations.

In order to improve and facilitate tax compliance, the new act has spelt out specific provisions that will guide the different procedures and timelines for payment of various taxes including withholding taxes, tax payable by instalment and tax payable by assessment.

The main objective of the new Act was therefore to revise and consolidate the laws relating to income tax in Ghana and generally simplify the provisions of the Act.

Healy Consultants is a professional corporate services provider headquartered in Singapore and with a presence in Ghana since the year 2003. The company aides global entrepreneurs looking to establish their international businesses in different sectors of the economy with, among others, company registration, tax and vat registration, assistance with obtaining business licenses and official business addresses, opening a corporate and merchant bank account and obtaining work or residence visas.