By; Ashiadey Dotse
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will start a new tax system on July 1, 2025, aimed at improving tax collection from informal sector workers.
This new system, called the Modified Taxation, is designed to make it easier for small business owners and traders who are not already registered with the GRA to pay taxes. Informal sector workers who earn less than GHS 20,000 annually will now pay a fixed quarterly tax of GHS 25, GHS 35, or GHS 45.
Those who earn between GHS 20,000 and GHS 500,000 in a year will pay 3% of their total sales as tax.
According to Citinews, at the launch of a report titled “Ghana’s Untapped Economy: Analysis of Tax Compliance Behaviour of Informal Sector Workers in the Greater Accra Region,” Dr. Alex Kombat, the GRA’s Assistant Commissioner for Research and Policy, said the new system will help expand Ghana’s tax base and ensure fairness.
“We want to make tax payment simple for small businesses. This new method is different from the old way of taxing and is meant to help more people take part,” Dr. Kombat said. He called on the public, especially the media, to support the rollout of the system.
Country Manager of BudgIT Ghana, Jennifer Moffatt, urged the GRA to work closely with local authorities to boost tax collection. She said many informal workers are more willing to pay levies to their local assemblies than to the GRA.
Chairperson of the Society of Women in Taxation, Esi Sam, also welcomed the plan, saying it will make it easier for people to understand and pay their taxes. “When the process is simple, people are more likely to follow it,” she noted.
The report was released by BudgIT Ghana in partnership with the Society of Women in Taxation Ghana and the International Budget Partnership.
