2018 Budget: Young Entrepreneurs To Get Tax Holidays – Gov’t

Government has reiterated its commitment to ensuring that local companies thrive by announcing that young business owners in the country will receive tax holidays.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, made this announcement on the floor of Parliament today, Wednesday, November 15, whilst presenting the government’s budget and policy statement for 2018.

According to the Minister, the government will through the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), grant the tax holidays to the beneficiaries based on the number of people they employ.

The companies will also be allowed to carry forward their losses for a period of five years

“As a further commitment to creating a supportive ecosystem for young Ghanaian entrepreneurs of age 35 years and below, who start their own businesses, government will through the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), grant tax holidays based on the number of persons employed by a start-up or early-stage business,” he said.

“A preferential tax rate of between 3 to 5 years will be granted after the tax holiday.”

This announcement by the Finance Minister follows calls for the government to provide “deliberate support” to Ghanaian entrepreneurs to enable them grow their businesses.

A Board Member of GHACEM, Ghana’s leading cement manufacturer, Dr. Ishmael Yamson, said in September: “doing business in this country is not easy, and we have to make it easy for businesses to flourish. There is no way we are going to create businesses, create wealth, we are going to create jobs, create widespread prosperity if doing business in this country is not made easy.”

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has consistently indicated its commitment towards supporting young business owners.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier in July, set up a 100 million dollar package to fund the NEIP.

Akufo-Addo said at the time that, he is confident the project will help address the major unemployment issues in the country.

“Let me introduce you to the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan. This is the flagship initiative which will be the primary vehicle for providing an integrated national support for startups and small businesses. Despite the severe constraints of our public finances, which have resulted from years of mismanagement and corruption, Government has contributed US$10 million as seed money for the Plan. It is the intention that this seed money should be leveraged to raise money from private sources and public organizations to the tune of US$100 million to fund its programmes,” the President had said.

Source: Citifmonline