The Ghana Revenue Authority has said that businesses operating in the country can now apply for and print their tax clearance certificates (TCCs) online.
The development comes after the Authority completed the automation processes used to acquire the certificate, which is proof that a taxpayer has fully discharged its tax obligations.
The electronic TCC took off on October 1 as part of efforts by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to ensure increased compliance with tax payments to increase revenue.
The revenue arm explained that by digitising the acquisition process, it will help address delays and frustrations that taxpayers go through in order to access their TCCs through the manual process.
Head of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) at GRA, Edward Apenteng Gyamerah said the move will also curb the issuance of fake certificates by taxpayers.
Mr Gyamerah explained that GRA had created and deployed an online portal from October 1 that interested taxpayers should use to apply for and obtain their tax certificates.
The portal, according to him generates the TCC automatically after the required information has been filled out. This removes the human involvement, which exposed the manual process to various abuses and delays.
“With the manual process, we have people faking the TCCs to the extent that some businesses always come back to the GRA to cross-check whether or not a particular TCC that has given been to a taxpayer is authentic.
“So, to be able to resolve these challenges, we are moving into the electronic issuance of a TCC,” he said.
Mr Gyamerah however said that the e-TCC was being rolled out alongside an e-value-added tax (VAT) system which formed part of a tax digitalisation programme being championed by the authority.
He said under the tax digitalisation initiative, cashless payments of taxes and online filing of tax returns have been rolled out while the e-VAT invoicing and the e-TCC systems were now being introduced.
Touching on how the e-TCC system works, My Gyamerah said “all that you need to do as a taxpayer is to apply for a TCC through our portal.”
“On the portal, there is a compliance check to be sure that you have paid all your taxes and filed all returns.
“Once you have done all that is required of you as a taxpayer, then you can print it electronically and it can also be given to the requesting entity,” Mr Gyamerah said.
The Head of the DTRD of the authority added that once a firm’s tax identification number (TIN) was given, the authority could automatically generate and send the needed firm’s TCC to a requesting entity online.
“So, the issue of authentication where institutions come back to GRA as to the genuineness of certificates issued would be solved,” he said.
On the e-VAT, he said the system allowed ‘VATable’ institutions to issue the invoices electronically as against the current system where invoices were issued manually.
He added that the automation was meant to remove abuses, including the faking of invoices, under-invoicing and under-carding, which lead to loss of revenue.
While the e-TCC would cover all institutions, the Head of the DTRD said the e-VAT would be implemented in phases.
He said the first phase would see about 600 large taxpayers and listed companies being covered between now and the third quarter of next year.
He said the second and third phases would cover medium-sized taxpayers in 2023 and all other taxpayers by December 2024 respectively.
Edward Apenteng Gyamerah, Head of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division at GRA