The Students Representative Council ( SRC) of Ghana School of Law is to collaborate with the Ghana Revenue Authority ( GRA) to correct its data on the 6,000 lawyers the Authority named as defaulting in tax obligations.
According to an Assistant Commissioner at the office of the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr. Dominic Naab, the announcement that 60,000 professionals out of which 6, 000 lawyers default in paying taxes is not entirely correct.
In view of this, the Authority he said is seeking to use the SRC website and the upcoming student’s magazine to correct this erroneous information.
The information was first put out by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recently in Bolgatanga when he attended this year’s Bar conference.
GRA said it’s subsequent auditing after it took the data from the National Identification Authority ( NIA) has shown that persons not qualified to be called lawyers except working in law firms were captured as lawyers during the registration of Ghanaians.
According to the GRA, this activity by the NIA during the registration exercise categorized all staff of a law firm as lawyers which eventually erroneously put the figure of 6,000 lawyers who have defaulted in paying their taxes when in actual fact the number is not what was initially captured.
During a call by the SRC of the Ghana School of Law with a high – powered officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, the GRA sought to use the website and the upcoming magazine of the SRC to explain and correct this erroneous information.
“ Lawyers actually pay taxes but they like to ask questions for clarification “, Mr.Naab indicated.
The meeting which was led by the SRC President, Mr Wonder Victor Kutor was to solicit the assistance of the GRA towards a scholarship fund that has been initiated by the SRC to support brilliant but needy students who struggle to pay all the components of their fees.
Mr Kutor, among others, called on the GRA to sponsor a moot court competition which will be held among law schools from Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and that of Ghana.
The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev .Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah who welcomed the SRC delegation pledged to cooperate with the students to achieve the purposes for which they called on the GRA.
He expressed the hope that the sponsorship package and the support for the scholarship fund which the SRC is seeking will be considered, adding that the GRA looks forward to more cooperation with the SRC.
The high powered management who were at the meeting with the SRC made suggestions for the motion for the moot court competition to be centred around revenue mobilization, paying tax and benefits of it’s compliance.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
