Revenue generation for sustainable growth in Ghana: Is targeting nil-filing a worthwhile exercise?
This study examines the tax filing behaviour of registered taxpayers in Ghana, aiming to quantify the extent of nil-filing and non-filing practices.
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Amissah et al Policy brief.pdf
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- This project analyses the tax filing behaviour of registered taxpayers in Ghana, aiming to quantify the extent of nil-filing and non-filing practices.
- Taxpayer data from administrative datasets from 27 of the 59 tax offices nationwide was analysed. This project is the first to analyse Ghana’s tax data disaggregated into CIT and PIT, as well as regional (Accra and Northern Ghana) subsamples.
- Preliminary analysis of the data, spanning 2010-2023, showed that nil-filing in Ghana is not as high (averaging just under 5%) as has been reported in some other African countries such as Rwanda (53% for CIT and 17% for PIT for 2013-2017) and Eswatini (20.4% for 2013-2017). However, nil-filing has been on an upward trend, particularly since 2019.
- In Ghana, the extent of non-filing is particularly worrying, averaging 59.2% (60.4% for CIT and 58.02% for PIT).
- Econometric data analyses provide evidence that taxpayer characteristics can predict the likelihood of tax compliance behaviours.
- Despite GRA’s success in increasing registered taxpayer numbers, it must do better to minimise non-filing drastically and to halt the growing nil-filing trend.