Same Tax, Collected When You Pay: Bringing fairness to VAT on foreign digital services – Anthony Kwasi Sarpong writes
For the customer, very little changes. There is no form to fill and no extra step. You continue to pay for and enjoy your services as usual, and each time you make a payment, you will receive an SMS or email confirming the transaction, so you can see exactly what you have been charged, including VAT. No one who is already paying VAT should pay it twice. Where VAT is wrongly charged, it will be refunded automatically. If it is not, the customer should notify the bank or mobile money provider from which the payment was made, keeping the SMS or email notification as a record. Where the matter is still not resolved, GRA’s official channels remain open. Why does this matter? The first reason is fairness. A Ghanaian software developer, streaming platform or digital advertising agency must charge VAT on its services. When a foreign company offering the same service to the same customer charges…
