[ 2013-07-24 ]

GRA re-launches 8% Rent Tax
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has re-launched
the 8% tax on rent to remind landlords and land
ladies who default in the payment of the tax to
perform their civic duties.

This comes at a time when government is gone
“happy-go-lucky” with the introduction of
taxes on condoms, bathroom slippers, cutlasses,
outboard motors, fishing nets, mobile handsets and
many others; plus 5% stabilization levy on
selected sectors of the economy for the next 18
months.

Rent tax is not a news tax; it is a withholding
tax payable on every income that accrues to
someone as a result of letting or leasing a
property to another person either for residential
or commercial purposes.

Chief Revenue Officer at GRA, Kwasi Bobie-Ansah
told Adom Business that because landlords usually
collect rent in cash, it is difficult for the GRA
to track how many people are collecting rent and
how much rent they are collecting, adding that it
therefore becomes equally difficult to collect
rent tax.

He said, as part of the re-launch, the GRA has set
up a taskforce of men and women who would go round
homes, shops and offices to find out how much rent
the tenants paid so the landlords and land ladies
could be made to pay the 8% tax on the income they
received.

Mr. Bobie-Ansah said the taskforce would begin its
work from Accra and Tema and later extend it to
other parts of the country.

“Rent tax is payable within 30 days of the day
of collection – if three months passes and a
landlord or land lady has not paid the 8% tax
there is a penalty of 20% of the amount payable
plus the full amount, and if it crosses three
months the penalty is 30% extra,” he said.

Mr. Bobie-Ansah is therefore appealing to landlord
and ladies to cooperate with the GRA and avoid
penalties, adding that tenants would also be
expected to provide information on how much rent
they paid.

He assured tenants that there is no way any
landlord or land lady would know which tenant
reported them to the GRA.

Mr. Bobie-Ansah is also appealing to government to
ensure that Ghana moved from a heavily cash-based
economy to an electronic one so that it would be
easy to track rent payments and the tax payable on
rent income.

Source - Adomfm

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