The Supreme Court has affirmed a legal provision which obliges people dissatisfied with a tax assessment by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to pay 30 per cent of the tax before challenging it.
In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, a seven-member panel of the apex court dismissed a suit challenging the constitutionality of the said provision.
Known unofficially as the “pay now, argue later”, Section 42(5)(b) of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915) stipulates that before someone can challenge a tax decision by the GRA, the person must pay “all outstanding taxes, including 30 per cent of the tax in dispute.”
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What this means is that the GRA will not entertain any challenge to its decision for an entity to pay certain taxes unless that entity had first complied with the provision of Section 42(5)(b) of Act 915.