Mr. Afflu hailed President Mahama for living an exemplary life to the Ghanaian tax payers by first filing his returns. To him, the President’s move is a step in the right direction and should be applauded.
Explaining issues regarding the payment of taxes to the Revenue Authority on Radio Gold, he stated that it is incumbent on every income earner in the nation to declare and file his returns in order to aid the GRA to track his or her tax payments.
He further noted that though employees whose incomes are derived solely from their remunerations are exempt from filing their tax returns, they are however implored to divulge any other sources of income they earn aside their salaries to the tax authority.
“If you are an employee and you earn other sources of income, you are supposed to declare all those other sources of income and then, pay tax on.”
He also said that workers are mandated by law to pay their income tax, employment income tax, capital gains, and valued added taxes among others.
“The law says that any income accrued in, derived from, brought into or received in Ghana is taxable in Ghana. So, once you earn income; once the source of the income is Ghana, you are taxable in Ghana,” he explained.
He further described President Mahama’s filing of his tax returns as a “good idea”, stressing that “it was a good idea for the President to file his tax returns. I don’t see anything wrong with it. This is leadership by example. Even though under article 68 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, the President is not supposed to pay tax for his salaries or emolument but if the President has any other source of income, like in this case I’m told that the President has published some books; and so, any income from that venture is certainly taxable. So, if he has gone to declare them, I think that it was a specific duty for him to do so. So, it was in order.”
President John Mahama on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 filed his tax returns at the Kinbu office of the Ghana Revenue Authority to symbolize good leadership.
Addressing the media during the filing of his returns, he urged all Ghanaians to follow his steps and ensure that they pay taxes for the development of the economy.
He explained that “Revenue is what gives us the good things that we want. The roads don’t appear magically from heaven. It’s because of the taxes that we pay that we are able to raise the revenue to fix the roads and so I thought that, my gesture in coming here and paying my taxes personally and letting everybody know that even the President is not totally exempted from taxes”, and also revealed that “when the Constitution Review Committee is fully done, the President will also pay tax on his official income, but aside from that, any extra income the President earns from any activity is taxable and so I came to pay my taxes on income for the 2012 fiscal year.”
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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