The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, has stated that cryptocurrency traders in Ghana cannot avoid taxation as the Authority prepares to implement new technology to track profits made from digital assets.
“One interesting area is cryptocurrency. It is evolving and growing rapidly. Currently, there are individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies who are making significant profits. This sector is developing,” he said during an interview on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday.
He noted that “Our laws are being updated. We are collaborating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bank of Ghana to establish regulations. However, in terms of tax laws, the principle is not new. If you make a profit or gain, you are obligated to pay taxes on it.”
Sarpong also explained that the GRA is building systems to capture transactions conducted in the digital space. “The technology we are deploying will enable us to monitor all cryptocurrency accounts closely. We will work with these individuals to ensure they comply with tax regulations.”
Mr. Sarpong noted that the broader objective is to align Ghana’s tax system with the growing digital economy.
“Digitisation and digital economy are here with us and into the future, and most importantly, even the taxpayer of the future is digital. And that’s why we as GRA are preparing ourselves to be digitally ready for today and into the future, so we can continue to deliver on our mandate of revenue mobility.”
He added that the focus on crypto is part of a wider plan to close loopholes in online transactions and ensure compliance with existing tax laws.
“So today, online business tax rules already exist, which is, for example, the VAT. If you are buying as you walk into a physical shop, you pay VAT. In the same way, when you are buying online, you pay VAT.
“So what we are doing is to use the technology so that when people buy online, we can access the VAT and the tax at the point of payment, so that this today’s challenge of not finding them to come and follow, or not even knowing what they have done online, will be a thing of the past.
“And that introduction of technology we are working on, again, that’s something we believe that by September, we will deploy that technology and run a pilot for the end of the year and scale it up.”
He stressed that this approach is in line with the government’s policy not to introduce too many new taxes, but rather to enforce existing ones.
“So you know the policy of President Mahama and the Finance Minister is that we are not introducing so many new taxes because we already have within our tax laws sufficient measures that once implemented will help us deepen and expand the tax net.”
Source: Abubakar Ibrahim
