GRA Pilots Digital Tool to Tax Online Businesses, Boost Revenue Collection
GRA partners with Bank of Ghana to ensure online businesses pay VAT through automated digital system
- GRA piloting digital economy tool to collect taxes from online businesses
- System will automatically deduct VAT at the point of payment, including for foreign sellers
- Initiative aims to improve efficiency, not introduce new taxes, and boost government revenue
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is piloting a digital economy tool aimed at improving tax collection from the rapidly expanding online business sector, Acting Commissioner-General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong has announced.
Speaking at the KPMG 2026 Post-Budget Forum on Monday, themed “Resetting for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation,” Sarpong explained that the initiative targets online businesses, including foreign operators, which sell goods and services in Ghana but currently escape Value Added Tax (VAT) obligations.
“We are at the moment piloting what we call the digital economy tool because online businesses are growing. There are businesses outside the country selling a lot in Ghana, but we do not get the benefit of the VAT,” he said.
The GRA is collaborating with the Bank of Ghana and the Financial Intermediation to deploy a system that will automatically deduct taxes at the point of payment, ensuring compliance without creating additional burdens for taxpayers.
Sarpong cited global tech giants like Amazon as examples of how digital tools can guarantee proper tax collection and stressed that the initiative does not introduce new taxes, but rather improves efficiency in collecting existing ones.
“Government action is really not to introduce new taxes; it is to create efficiencies in the way we employ the existing taxes. In that way, we believe we can generate a lot more revenue,” he emphasized.
