LANDLORDS SENSITISED TO TAX EDUCATION (PAGE 29)

LANDLORDS and tenants in the Tamale metropolis have attended a day’s seminar on tax education.
The seminar was aimed at educating the participants on the need to pay tax on rent.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) organised the seminar.
The Northern Regional Director of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in charge of rent tax, Mr Elias Sokuu, said tax collection in the region had always been a difficult task for the service, resulting in the inability of the IRS to meet its annual targets.
He said the IRS was able to meet its annual target for the region in 2007. He said further that this year’s target for the Northern Region was GH¢3.7 million but so far only GH¢1.5 million had been collected, making a negative deviation of 12 per cent.
He expressed the opinion that “we as administrators must recognise and accept the challenge that our core mission should not be meeting revenue targets but rather strengthening voluntary compliance through a better delivery of client service.”
He admonished taxpayers to summit their tax returns correctly, adequately and promptly.
For his part, the Tamale Metropolitan Manager of the IRS, Mr Minsi Fordjour, asked individuals and institutions to deduct eight per cent of all rents as rent tax before paying them to their landlords.
He warned that “any institution/organisation which fails to withhold the tax is personally liable to pay to the commissioner the amount of tax, which has not been withheld.”
He said the landlord could be contacted later to reimburse the institution or organisation after personally paying the non-withheld rent tax.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, thanked the IRS for organising such a workshop, saying it would help to boost revenue generation in the metropolis.
“My happiness stems from the fact that as the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, any innovative measure, which aims at widening the tax net and bringing in more revenue has my blessing,” he added.
The MCE said Ghana’s development hinged on everyone agreeing to pay his or her share of the tax burden and added: “It is through the taxes that such benefits as improved electricity and water supplies and effective maintenance of law and order can be achieved to ensure that we continue to run our business in a more secure and enabling environment.”
Mr Adam described the forum on tax education as a bold attempt at extending the tax net to rope in everybody eligible to pay tax in Ghana.
He gave a promise that the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly would collaborate with the IRS to generate more revenue for the nation.