Tax allowances for married couples totaling GHS 1,084,860 million has not been paid by the government for the past 14 years.

Though the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Act 2000 clearly states that married couples are entitled to some amount of tax reliefs every year, most married couples are either ignorant or unaware of this Act and as such disenfranchise themselves from this legitimate benefit. 

Section 39 (1) a, of the aforementioned Act states that, “in the case of an individual with a dependent spouse or at least two dependent children, 30 points (equivalent to GHS 30) currency”.

Per this directive, every married couple, as long as they are tax paying Ghanaians, are entitled to a tax relief of GHS30 every year, subject to review.

With an average of 2,583 registered marriages annually, a total of 36,162 couples are estimated to have been married from 2000 to 2014. With GHS 30 due every tax paying couple annually, government is expected to have paid a total of GHS 1,084,860 to married couples as tax relief.

Checks by Business Day has however revealed that married couples have been denied the aforementioned figure, in tax benefit, since 2000, with the possibility of a similar situation re-occurring in 2015 and beyond.

This situation is due to the fact that majority of Ghanaians are not aware of the existing Act or are not interested in the tax incentive due to the GHS 30 amount involved.

Interviews conducted by Business Day revealed that majority of Ghanaians (not just married couples) are ignorant of this incentive. Many of the respondents who spoke to Business Day had no idea what marriage tax relief was.

“I have been married for the past 4years and this is the first time I am hearing about this” “I don’t think a lot of people know about it, if they did, I would have heard about it in a conversation or two with them” Mr. Agbenyegah, a 37 year old married man said. “If they can make so much noise about paying of taxes, why can’t they make that same amount of noise on tax reliefs also?” He asked.

Amazingly, Mr. Agbenyegah is not the only person. For someone like Nana Agyemang, this is news. “Wow! Tax relief for married couples, I can’t believe I am still single? He opined amusingly. “I think this is good news, with most young men afraid of getting married because of financial constraints I suppose this will be a motivation for them”.

For those few who knew about these reliefs, the amount involved was no motivation for them, hence their refusal to file for the relief.

Mrs. Peprah, a businesswoman, who had not filed for her relief since she got married in 2007, revealed that the amount was a deterrent to her filing for the relief.

“A friend of mine who works with GRA told me about it but I do not see the need to file for a relief as meager as GHS30 once every year; it’s just insulting” she retorted. How do you expect me to file a huge amount on tax returns only for you to give me GHS30 as relief? This will only discourage people like me from filing our returns”, she said.

Sources at GRA confirmed the provisions for the tax reliefs by its 2000 Act and explained how it works.

“Yes, the law makes provision for tax reliefs for individuals, including marriage couples, but for those who file their returns faithfully. The reason, however, why most people do not know about these reliefs is because they do not file their returns” the source said, adding that “if you file your returns honestly, you should know about the reliefs because we do our best to educate our clients about these reliefs every time”

The procedure, according to sources, has been made very easy to allow every tax paying Ghanaian to access it with no cumbersome procedure. Couples are required to complete and submit Income Tax Return Form and a marriage certificate as proof, to GRA, in order to claim their relief.

According to law, only one of the spouses can file for the claims with couples enjoying the benefit as long as they remain married.

In 2011, then Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Kwabena Duffour, presenting government's fiscal and economic policy to Parliament, announced government’s revision of tax relief, with the new rate for marriage reliefs pegged at 100 currency points.

Sources could however not confirm if indeed the current rate is anything near the 100 currency point or GHS100 as claimed by the Minister.