The 2021 Auditor General’s Report has identified 6,856 companies, business entities and individuals owing an amount of ¢111.652 million in corporate and individual income taxes for 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.
The Auditor General therefore urged management of the Ghana Revenue Authority to increase its enforcement role to collect all the outstanding tax revenue.
Also, Pay As You Earn (PAYE) totalling ¢32.071 million deducted on behalf of 3,121 employees including 346 directors was also not remitted to the Commissioner-General for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.
“We urged the Commissioner-General to recover all outstanding PAYE together with appropriate penalties under Section 71 of the Revenue Administration Act”.
The report also found out that 811 companies that filed their tax returns for 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment, failed to withhold taxes on goods and services procured amounting to ¢43.47 million.
It therefore recommended that the Commissioner-General recover the outstanding taxes with the appropriate penalties.
On the indebtedness of traders over the Value Added Tax, the report also noted that 651 registered VAT traders who filed their returns at the various tax offices owed a total of ¢87.166 million for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.
The report therefore recommended that the Commissioner General should take the necessary steps to recover all outstanding taxes.
For Outstanding returned and uncredited cheques, the Returned Cheques Register at 16 Taxpayer Service Centres revealed that 316 cheques with a total value of ¢9.581 million issued by taxpayers were not honoured by their respective banks.
Similarly, 128 cheques with a value of ¢562,090 lodged by the GRA were not credited.
The Auditor General therefore recommended that the Heads of the Tax Offices involved should ensure that the taxpayers are pursued to settle the outstanding taxes.
Again, they should also ensure that the uncredited lodgements are rectified
Source:myjoyonline.com
