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Religious bodies schooled on
taxation
Cape Coast, May 21,
Ghanadot/GNA – The Internal Revenue Services (IRS)
and the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service on Thursday jointly
organized a day’s seminar to educate religious bodies on
their tax obligation to the State.
The seminar,
which brought together Pastors and Imams exposed the
participants to the obligations of religious bodies in
Ghana’s taxation system.
Speaking on the
theme: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” in
Cape Coast, Mr Boakye Yiadom, Chief Inspector of Operations
of the IRS Head Office in Accra, told the religious
authorities that they were to pay taxes on all income
generating activities that were not related to their core
religious functions.
He enumerated
some of the income generating activities carried out by
Pastors to include the sale of holy water, anointing oil and
books authored by them stressing that all these are for done
for the personal benefits of the individual Pastors.
Other activities
that attract tax are consultation fees charged by Pastors
for counseling, gifts given to them and other enterprises
owned by the Church, he said and cautioned; “I am reminding
all Pastors that they will account for all their tax
obligations before God” and urged the Clergy to use the
pulpits to educate their congregation on the need to pay
taxes.
Mr Kwasi Bobie
Ansah, Chief Inspector in-charge of Public Relations and Tax
Education of the IRS, reminded the public that taxes
remained one of the main sources of government’s generated
revenue.
He assured the
public that tax administrators in the country were committed
to fairness, transparency and accountability and would
therefore leave no stone unturned to ensure that enough
revenue were generated to facilitate the development of the
country.
Touching on
taxable gifts, Mr Ansah indicated that any gift in a form of
a permanent or temporary structure, transportation, foreign
currency received from persons other than a spouse or family
relations were taxable under the Internal Revenue Act of
2000, Act 592 section 72.
He warned that
tax evasion was an offence punishable by law.
Reverend Isaac
Archibald Hawkson, Senior Pastor of Calvary Charismatic
Centre, who chaired the seminar, told Christians that the
Bible expects them to respect authority and to fulfill their
obligation to the state.
Gna
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