The Ghana Revenue Authority has set April 1^st, 2022 to begin collecting taxes from non-resident Ghanaians who undertake online businesses such as using Facebook to sell or electronic-commerce (E-commerce).

The move is to ensure that the country mobilises adequate revenue and widens the tax net for national development. 

Speaking at the launch of the E-Commerce Portal for Tax Registration and Compliance, Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Rev. Dr. Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, said all is set to tax online businesses of non-resident Ghanaians.

“The portal that has been launched to track and trace earnings of social media and online businesses is going live before the April 1^st, 2022 deadline, for the beginning of the collection.

This non-resident initiative will serve as a pilot to the overall aim of taxing all social media and online operations in the country”, he explained.

He is confident affected businesses will comply with the directive and file their tax obligations through the electronic portal.

“We have identified more businesses that fall under this category and we’re hopeful that they will comply because it is their civic duty”.

“This will include all online platforms and social media handles that gets some form of profit from their operations here in Ghana. It is a move that will increase our tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio and also improve revenue generation for the 2022 budget”, he explained.

Although he noted that this is just a pilot phase, the country is likely to generate some 1.7 billion from the tax for the first year of implementation.

All non-compliance companies will be blocked from doing any profitable business in Ghana through a system operated in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana.

Also known as social media tax, this tax mechanism will also capture businesses on Facebook, Whatsapp, Netflix, Amazon and among others.