SHS students to obtain numbers
Persons wishing to open new bank accounts or access banking services, file a case at the court, obtain driver’s licenses, passports or register their lands among other transactions, can only do so if they have acquired a Tax Identification Number, (TIN).
However people who will apply for the TIN, would have to acquire the numbers at various GRA offices because electronic registration still remains a challenge due to their inability to validate the pictures of applicants.
The latest enforcement program for the registration of the TIN, an eleven digit number given to tax payers is to help the GRA identify them for tax collection and to promote compliance.
In accordance with this, the GRA is set to roll out a platform to ensure that, student at the secondary school level obtain their TIN numbers before they write their final exams.
Also persons who want to transact business with other public institutions including the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, Registrar General’s department, the Registrar of Co-operatives, the Immigration Service, and the Ministries, Municipal and District Assemblies cannot do so without a TIN.
So far a little over one million persons have obtained their TIN since the Revenue Administration Act 2016 gave legal backing to the Tax Identification Number system.
But speaking at a news conference in Accra, Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti said the latest enforcement of the policy which began on April 1, is to double the numbers and broaden the tax base.
“Effectively it is to broaden the tax net to capture all potential tax payers and to afford the revenue administration the ability to monitor all transactions entered into by the taxpayers,” he stated.
According to Nti, the GRA has already held series of meetings with the above-mentioned institutions to ensure a successful enforcement of the policy.
“Consequently, GRA expects the institutions mentioned above to demand for the TIN of their clients before transacting business with them.”
The listed institutions have therefore been tasked to modify their forms to include a field for the provision of TIN.
The TIN as explained by the GRA will also be a portal for the National Identification Card.