Accounting and auditing firm, Deloitte Ghana, is urging banks and other financial institutions, payment service providers and electronic money issuers (EMIS) providing electronic money transfer or payment platforms to institute the required compliance protocols and governance systems to comply with the mandate to accurately charge and account for the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) to the Ghana Revenue Authority.

This is coming after the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) announced the implementation of the electronic transfer levy from May 1^st, 2022

“The passage of Act 1075 provides that administration of E-levy will be in accordance with the provisions of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915). Hence, we expect all administrative matters such as penalties and interest, taxpayer rights and responsibilities to be as provided under Act 915”, Deloitte said in its update on E-levy.

Furthermore, it said “Act 1075 does not however clearly specify the timing of returns to be filed for E-levy collected, adding “while we await further guidance from the GRA, we expect the timing to be on a monthly basis similar to VAT and Communication Service Tax return filing and payment.”

Scope and application of E-levy

The levy will be charged at 1.5% by banks, specialized deposit-taking institutions, payment service providers, electronic money issuers and other financial institutions on the transfer value of the following transactions:

• Mobile money transfers done between accounts either on the same electronic money issuer or on different electronic money issuer;
• Transfers between bank accounts and mobile money accounts; and
• Bank transfers originating from bank accounts that belong to an individual.

The entities required to account for the levy will be required to charge the levy as part of their transaction fees and remit same to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).