VAT Service to close down defaulting business

The management of Value Added Tax (VAT) Service has set up a team to close down businesses that have not registered with the service. Mr. Anthony Ewereko Minlah, Commissioner of VAT, said the measure was to create a level playing field for businesses and strengthen revenue mobilisation in the country. "The VAT Service has been mandated by Parliament to close down businesses that fail to register with it for payment of tax," he said. Mr. Minlah was speaking at a workshop organised by the management of VAT for members of Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GIS) in Accra. The two-day workshop under the theme: "The Contemporary Quantity Surveyor: Taxation Marketing Insurance and the Emerging Oil and Gas Industry in Ghana," sought to educate members on the need to regularly pay their taxes and the importance of tax. Mr Minlah said the VAT Amendment Act 2002 required surveyors to fulfil their tax obligations on demolition, alteration, maintenance of buildings they undertook. He expressed concern that provisions in the VAT Law were not being complied with by stakeholders in the building industry because they were not well informed on the provisions. Mr Minlah said management was monitoring businesses that had never filed returns with the service as well as those who had failed to file returns. He advised members of GIS to report to the service any difficulty in filing their returns. Mr Kwadwo H. Osei-Asante, President of GIS, advised surveyors who had not yet registered with the service to fulfil their tax obligations.