Ghana partners with the UK on tax transparency

sQuashie

August 10, 2015 4:03 PM

The UK and Ghana will automatically exchange tax information to help Ghana maximize its revenues.

Seth Tekper

UK tax agency HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is partnering with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to develop its expertise on tax legislation, compliance, and data privacy.

In 2014, the G20 finance ministers agreed to a new global standard for the automatic exchange of tax information between governments by the end of 2018 and committed to supporting developing countries that wished to participate.

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The UK's Department for International Development and HMRC will work with Ghanaian authorities to implement this Common Reporting Standard.

Under the partnership, Ghana will automatically receive tax information from HMRC on the UK holdings of Ghanaian taxpayers, and vice versa.

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UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said: "The UK has been at the forefront of tackling international tax avoidance and evasion. We committed to helping developing countries increase their tax transparency and improve their tax systems, so I'm delighted to announce our new partnership with Ghana. Sharing our tax expertise will help the Ghanaian taxman have the systems in place to make the most of the tax information they receive from over 90 countries come 2018."

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Ghana's Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, said: "Ghana believes in the united international onslaught on tax evasion through transparency and exchange of information because this menace can effectively be eliminated only through international cooperation. In order to boost revenue generation Ghana is ready to join the global effort to control tax evasion. The collaboration with UK is bound to profit the two countries and Ghana's revenue generation efforts will be enhanced."

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