Today in History: Uber Ghana drivers to be roped in tax net – GRA

Ghana Revenue Authority in April 2019 announced its intention to tax ride-hailing service - Uber through Vehicle Income Tax (VIT) sticker system.

The decision taken by GRA was to widen the country's tax net.

Solution Developer at GRA, Patrick Frimpong Danso, in an interview explained that, "The move has also become necessary he noted because other commercial drivers like

Read full articletaxi and ‘trotro’ drivers point out that while they are compelled to pay tax, their Uber counterparts work, earn money yet don’t have tax obligations."

He stated that a mobile money payment platform had been proposed to enable commercial transport operators who file their quarterly tax through the VIT sticker system pay it through mobile money.

Read the full story originally published on April 19, 2019 by goldstreet.com.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) plans on roping in Uber drivers to pay tax to the state. Although the Solution Developer at the GRA; Patrick Frimpong Danso notes that the module to use is still in the works and stakeholder consultation ongoing before a full roll out later this year, the authority has announced it wants the payment of Vehicle Income Tax (VIT), Personal Income Tax and e-tax stamp via mobile phones in order to widen the tax net.

With the Uber drivers tax payment plan, Mr. Danso stated operators of the service; Uber Ghana will retain a percentage of earning of the driver to honour his or her tax obligation.

The move has also become necessary he noted because other commercial drivers like taxi and ‘trotro’ drivers point out that while they are compelled to pay tax, their Uber counterparts work, earn money yet don’t have tax obligations.

The mobile money payment platform being proposed is to enable commercial transport operators who pay their quarterly tax through the VIT sticker system to pay through mobile money.

It would also enable the Small-Scale Self-employed persons who pay their quarterly through tax stamp system and other persons who pay personal income tax to honour their tax obligations using the mobile money platform.

The VIT payment would be done through the mobile payment system with law enforcers able to check status of registration using a particular USSD code.

The GRA’s operations had largely been manual especially with tax payment process, filing of annual and monthly returns, submission of self-assessment estimates and submission of declarations of import duty payments.

Uber Ghana deals primarily in providing private transport from point A to point B on time without compromising the security and comfort of the rider with services charged per mileage. It first entered the Ghanaian market in 2016.