Ghana Revenue Authority To Start Taxing Beggars And Hawkers

Beggars to pay taxes.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) serves notice to street beggars. Furthermore, they plan to tax street beggars as part of moves to widen the tax net.

Also, the exercise will target individuals, especially women selling Dubai Wax prints and other imports.

The Principal Revenue Chief at the Small Tax Payer Office of the GRA spoke about how beggars harvest a lot of daily earnings that fall within the tax threshold.

Beggars and hawkers to pay taxes

“Those who carry things on their heads to sell (hawkers) be it cloth or consumables, we will tax them, how much more people who earn daily.

GRA taxes foreigners in town and by law the beggars fall within the taxable threshold.”

Furthermore, Alhaji Mohammed stressed that those begging as a form of business and a “hobby” should be ready to pay tax on their earnings.

However, Alhaji Yahaya acknowledged that the task was cumbersome. He added it was necessary to widen the tax net in order to pluck more revenue.

He said some of the beggars have assets and are making the “begging business” attractive.

“It is difficult to tax them but if they get the understanding that the income that they are earning, they are supposed to pay something to government it will help.”