GRA encourages businesses to issue VAT invoices after enterprises default

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Monday encouraged businesses, which are registered with the Authority to endeavour to issue the Commissioners Value Added (VAT) Invoice to their customers.

The Authority indicated that all taxpayers, who are into commercial activities and had registered must issue the VAT invoice while those who are yet to do so must register. 

When the team visited Many Means and Wasfal Enterprises, all wholesale shops in Nima, they were not issuing the VAT invoices, when inspection was conducted at the premises. 

At the Many Mean Enterprise, the officers had to take the central processing unit of the computer, because they were issuing their own receipts.

Mr Joseph Annan, Area Enforcement Manager of GRA in charge of Accra Central, told the Ghana News Agency that the organisation had clearly violated regulations of the VAT. 

He said the exercise or operations were part of an ongoing nationwide VAT Invigilation exercise by the Authority to retrieve some taxes due the State.

The Enforcement Officer said during these exercises some of their officers were sent on the field to do mystery shopping and this gave them the idea that many of the shop owners were not issuing the right VAT invoice, thus infringing on the country’s tax laws. 

He said at Many Means Enterprise, some of the managers were handed over to the police for process for court, and “we will also assess them and apply all the interest and penalties and sanctios under our law.”  

Mr Annan said the exercise would run until the Authority restored sanity into the system, where people obey their tax obligations.

He said instances where shop owners would want to issue their own invoices, they could apply to the Authority, where auditing would be done, and the necessary processes followed to enable them to issue their receipts. 

The Enforcement Officers said at Wasfal Enterprise, the owner of the shop was asked to report at the GRA Head Office.  

In a previous exercise on Friday, another team locked up the facilities of a plush event and trading centre ‘Delcon’ at East Legon in Accra for failing to honour their tax obligations to the state. 

The action by the GRA is to ensure that all revenues due to the state through taxes were collected. 

The GRA as part of the nationwide invigilation will continue to embark on mystery shopping exercises across the country to apprehend culprits evading tax.  -GNA