Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, presented the 2025 Budget Statement and Economic Policy on 11 March 2025 outlining tax policies and proposals designed to restore fiscal discipline, boost revenue generation, and ease economic pressures on households and businesses.
The key tax measures apply to direct taxation and indirect and administrative taxation.
Elimination of nuisance taxes
The government has proposed eliminating nuisance taxes to increase non-oil tax revenue by 0.6 percentage points of GDP.
Abolishing withholding taxes
The government proposed removing the 10% withholding tax on lottery winnings (Betting Tax and abolishing the 1.5% withholding tax on proceeds from small-scale miners’ sales of unprocessed gold.
VAT reforms
- The government plans to raise the VAT registration threshold to exempt micro and small businesses. The current threshold is an annual turnover of GHS 200,000;
- The VAT on motor vehicle insurance policies will be abolished;
- The VAT flat rate scheme (VFRS), which allows retailers with annual turnover between GHS 200,000 and GHS 500,000 to charge VAT/NHIL and the COVID-19 levy at a 4% marginal rate, will be reversed;
- The effective VAT rate for households and businesses will be reduced. Ghana’s effective VAT rate is about 22%;
- The COVID-19 Levy will be removed;
- The government will reintegrate the Ghana Education Trust Fund Levy (GETFL) and National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) (both 2.5%) into the VAT structure and reverse its standalone application, which raised the effective VAT rate to 21.75%.
Other taxes and levies
- The electronic transfer levy (ELevy) of 1% will be abolished;
- The 1% COVID-19 levy on goods and services will be removed;
- The sunset clause of the Special Import Levy will be extended to 2028;
- The tax refund account ceiling will be reduced from 6% to 4% of total revenue;
- The growth and sustainability levy on mining companies will be increased from 1% to 3%.
