GRA activates new tax administration platform - Over 400 taxpayers onboarded

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has started onboarding taxpayers onto its new platform for modernising tax administration.

Known as the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), it is expected to reduce fragmentation across frequent tax workflows and create a stronger digital foundation for service delivery, management of compliance and taxpayer support.

The ITAS platform is expected to enhance filing, payment, reconciliation, tracking, issue resolution and taxpayer support for a clearer, more coordinated experience for taxpayers.

As part of the first phase, the GRA has onboarded over 400 taxpayers from its Accra West Area Office — capturing taxpayers from Kaneshie to Kasoa, marking the start of a new platform for modernising tax administration.

After that, the authority will move to onboard the new electronic system, those classified as “large taxpayers”, currently about 1,000 such taxpayers.

The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, who disclosed this during a media interaction in Accra last Friday, said the authority expected that by August this year, all taxpayers would be on the modernised tax administration system.

“So within GRA, if your turnover and your level of income reach a certain size, you are classified as a large or a scaled taxpayer.

So currently, we have about 600 to 1,000 such taxpayers.

“They are also coming on board. Then, after that, we will onboard the rest of Accra.

Then after Accra, we will onboard the rest of the nation,” he explained.

Mr Sarpong said the GRA was aspiring to interface with other government institutions that held taxpayer data, adding that ITAS would “revolutionise the way we administer tax in Ghana”.

He said there was a seamless flow, which the GRA did not have at the moment, but ITAS would help the authority to overcome the fragmentation, the silo way of working, by connecting all the systems that it needed to work with.

Mr Sarpong stated that under phase two, GRA would be connecting with the Registrar of Companies, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and the National Identification Authority (NIA).

Digitalisation

While giving details of the digitalisation drive by the GRA, the Commissioner-General explained that the reform journey was to ensure that “We are having a system that could actually serve the needs of taxpayers and be able to have the interface, such that all taxpayers, on a three-system view perspective, could be seen by GRA.”

At the same time, the system would serve as a point of service, enabling taxpayers to have the simplicity and easier means to be able to fulfil their tax obligations.

The authority would also scale up the connection to other government institutions, such as the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Passport Office as many Ghanaians hold a lot of assets outside the country.

“Per the national laws in those countries where you hold your assets, you pay taxes there.

However, if the taxes you pay outside are lower than the taxes you pay in Ghana, then our laws say come and pay the difference,” Mr Sarpong stated.

He added that those institutions would eventually be connected to the ITAS, explaining why it was integrated.

Media

The GRA Commissioner-General underscored the importance of the media in making the rollout a success, explaining that ITAS was a change process and, therefore, “we need the media on this journey.”

“This is a new system, a lot of our citizens, businesses and taxpayers will need to understand and work with the system, and your role in helping to shape and educate the public is crucial and important,” he stressed.

Mr Sarpong, therefore, appealed to the media to help project and help the authority to educate the citizens on the ITAS.

He also entreated the media to provide feedback to the GRA on the use of the platform.

Engagements

The GRA would be undertaking other stakeholder engagements with the business community and with their taxpayers.

“Those are areas we want to journey with you, and we ask you to journey with us so that those engagements can also be carried to the relevant stakeholders for the right information and understanding to go out,” Mr Sarpong said.