Tax Expert calls for review on property rate

Tax expert, Dr. Ali Nakyea has urged government to review Ghana’s property rate to generate more revenue for the country.

Expressing his concerns, the tax analyst revealed that, the current state of the property rate is hampering the country’s revenue mobilization.

“We think that property taxation is one area most countries are raking a lot of revenue we need to consider. What we have is the property rate and its nothing to write home about. A four-bedroom house and you are charged GHC130 the whole year as property rate. How then can sanitation be good in your community?

“I think it is not economic value of today for your area to be sanitized. Then the improvement in the institutions and effectiveness of tax administration, ongoing reforms, area offices being created, [are] very good [initiatives]. So, [if] we continue faster with it, we can get revenue to deliver on this mandate” he made this known in a Citi Business interview.

Prior to this, Dr. Ali Nakyea had backed the Judicial Services’ decision to establish the Tax Court. He maintained that the establishment of the tax court will boost domestic resource mobilization.

Also, he noted that, this will help in the recovery of taxes from people as they will respond quickly to summon from the court.

His comments come after the Chief Justice on April 16, 2021, released a notice that the Judicial Service is preparing to establish the tax court.

Tax impositions on Ghanaians

The pros and cons of tax imposition has caused some heated debate due to mixed reaction from various stakeholders.

Whereas some are calling for a reversal of imposed taxes, other experts are more inclined to its benefit to the country.

Professor Peter Quartey in an exclusive interview with the Vaultz News in March, backed government’s decision to tax the gaming sector.

According to him, a number of individuals are currently moving from lotteries to the online gaming activities. This, he noted, makes the sector very juicy for government to tax.

Untimely introduction of taxes

In March this year, the Executive Director of Revenue Generation Africa, described as untimely, government’s introduction of some six taxes and levies in the 2021 budget.

According to Geoffrey Ocansey, the introduction of these taxes will further worsen the economic situation of Ghanaians.

This, he explained, was due to the impact of COVID-19 which many are still yet to recover from.

Mr Ocansey further called on Government to come up with more innovative ways to raise revenue.

“I think businesses and individuals are overstretched with financial difficulties in this period; and it was going to be proper for government to cough incentives opportunities like rent taxes from landlords and property rates, also cutting down on government expenditures and checking its debts accumulation.”