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Taxation: Private car owners to prove compliance

By myjoyonline
General News Taxation: Private car owners to prove compliance
APR 24, 2007 LISTEN

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is to introduce a new tax product to commit private vehicle owners to their tax obligations.

Known as the Income Tax Verification (ITV) sticker for private vehicles, the initiative which comes into force this year seeks to expand the country's tax base and will be enforced by the police.
It will also help to ensure a fairer distribution of the tax burden, which currently is borne largely by employees in the formal sector and companies.

The Commissioner of the IRS, Major Daniel Sowa Ablorh-Quarcoo, (Retired) announced this in Accra on Monday at the launch of the Third Revenue Week which is on the theme, "Promoting Understanding of Income Taxation."

He said under the ITV system, all individuals who own vehicles will be assumed to be income earners, noting that vehicle owners and users would have to prove their tax compliance by obtaining and displaying ITV stickers on their vehicles.

"The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) shall not register or examine any vehicle for the issuance of road worthiness certificate without the production of an ITV sticker by the owner," he added.

Major Ablorh-Quarcoo warned that the Violation of the ITV system shall carry sanctions and penalties.

He indicated that the Revenue Week placed emphasis on the filing of tax returns for the mutual benefit of both the tax filer and the administrator.

He noted that over the years it had been realised that Ghanaians generally did not file their tax returns, although the law enjoined all taxpayers to do so by the end of April each year.

The Revenue Week, he said, was thus to galvanise taxpayers to take their tax obligations more seriously than was the case currently.
To further broaden the tax net and ensure fairness to those already in the tax net, the commissioner said his outfit had established an institutional linkage with the Registrar General's Department to obtain data on all businesses registered in the country on a monthly basis.

He added that the IRS would link up with the Ghana Community Network (GC Net) system to enable them to obtain information on imports into the country to be sent to the districts to enable it to track importers who might not have registered with the service.

As part of measures to improve service delivery in the country, the IRS boss said the organisation had established a new division, known as the Quality Assurance and Compliance Division (QACD), which was charged with the primary objective of promoting the efficiency and effectiveness in the assessment and collection of taxes.

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