I support Tax at Churches – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo and Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr. Kofi Nti have announced their decision to tax churches that have now moved into the realm of wealth creation and prosperity.

Critics have said churches have over the years capitalized on their huge following to make money from their services and other activities.

But some leaders within the Christian fraternity have opposed the idea, arguing aside the church which are registered as charity organizations, all other business making ventures like schools pay tax to the government

Nana Akufo-Addo, Speaking at the 2018 Synod of the Global Evangelical Church in Accra said “There are increasing calls for churches to be taxed, it is not difficult to see what is driving these calls, for years, and the churches are seen to be leading the drive for development, they built and run schools and hospitals, they led the campaign for sanitation”.

According to him, the public looks on as some of the churches forget about the poor and vulnerable in society and concentrate on being outrageous, instead of taking care of them.

“It is not surprising that there are calls for taxes to be imposed on church income, when you step out of the charity sphere, out of education, out of healthcare; you are putting yourself in the line of the tax sphere,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of the GRA Kofi Nti has said the Authority will soon conduct investigations into activities of all churches in the country with the view to taxing them based on their level of business transactions.

The GRA has offered to pay informants 25 per cent of penalty against the churches that are hiding under fellowship to make money without paying taxes to the state.