The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, says cryptocurrency traders in Ghana cannot escape the tax net as the Authority prepares to deploy new technology to track gains made from digital assets.
“One interesting area is crypto. The crypto is evolving and growing very well. And today we have people who are dealing with cryptocurrency, and they are making money. That area is evolving.
“Our laws are coming up. So again, we are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and, Bank of Ghana to bring the regulation. But in terms of tax laws, one, the tax law is still not a new one. If you make a profit or gain, you’re supposed to pay that,” he said on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday.
He explained that the GRA is building systems that will allow it to capture transactions made in the digital space.
“So today, the technology we are going to deploy will be able to bring in all the crypto accounts into focus, and then we will work with these individuals to make sure that we bring them into the tax net.”
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.”