Stakeholders in the e-commerce space and a digital marketer Naasei Boadi believes it is important that the benefits players in the space stand to gain from the E-Commerce tax is clearly spelt out to ensure compliance.
He argues that this would help prevent similar resistance as the e-levy is currently experiencing.
Mr Boadi stressed that engagements will be crucial to ensuring the policy thrives.
“There’s so much unknown out there. There may be other things that the government can dangle to these platforms to encourage them to bring everything to book so that they can be able to tax them effectively. Otherwise, my fear is that a lot of people will push to the informal sector and it will become difficult to tax them and regulate them.”
Ghana Revenue Authority has revealed plans to begin taxing electronic commerce and online businesses beginning April 1, 2022.
This is in furtherance of the 80.3 billion Ghana cedis tax revenue target set by the government for the year 2022 and also attain a tax to GDP ratio of up to 16.5%.
This will mean the likes of Netflix, Facebook and other multinational online businesses that accrue revenue from Ghana will be compelled to comply with Ghana’s e-commerce tax.
Citi Business news gathers that already, a special-purpose software has been designed to monitor these businesses and tax them accordingly.
Mr Boadi stated that the policy if, implemented right, could have some advantages for players in the e-commerce space. He added that some incentives from the government would give a major boost to the policy.
“There could be a whole range of benefits, that, for example, you’ll find that a lot of the things that people are selling now are imported. So one of the things I want to encourage is, are there going to be any tax concessions for people who are importing on some of these platforms?”
“Are there going to be any tax concessions? For example, for people who are buying local products and selling them on these platforms? To people who are even paying I mean, we’re buying their products on these platforms, for example, are we going to get any rebates, for example, so that if you buy from these platforms, okay, are you going to get any reduced taxes because people already paying taxes on these items when you buy them via online, and they are already taxing the companies that are doing it formally”