The year 2020 will forever be remembered as the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic hit the entire world. With 2020 thankfully behind us now, despite its opportunities, I want to provide a quick recap of what happened over the past 12 months from the perspective of taxes and the general Ghanaian tax landscape. It is important to mention however that it is not the aim of this article to cover every single tax news item of 2020.

To provide a structure for what happened in 2020 and make for easy reading, I have summarised the 2020 tax calendar year into the respective quarterly periods.

Quarter 1 (January, February, March)

We began the year 2020 in January with news of an Accra High Court ruling in the landmark case of Kwasi Nyantakyi Owiredu v Ghana Revenue Authority (2019) with judgement given on 20 December 2019. This case bordered on the upfront deductibility of mortgage interest and provided clarity on the income tax treatment of mortgage interest deductions available to individuals. Next, the laws on Income Tax, National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy, Special Import Levy and Value Added Tax which were amended to give effect to the Government's plans in the 2020 Budget became practically effective after their passage in December 2019. Still in January, we received news of Ghana and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia negotiating a Double Taxation Agreement ("DTA") - an agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent tax avoidance. Based on publicly available information, the DTA has still not been signed as of today. In February, the Republic of Malta ratified their DTA with Ghana with no news as to when the Ghana-Malta DTA entered or will enter into force. In March, the Customs law was amended. The amendment introduced a number of customs-related exemptions (for our automobile assembling industry) and restrictions (on importation of salvaged or over-aged vehicles) with a gazette date of 30 April 2020. Still in March, the Ghana Revenue Authority ("GRA") announced an 'Informant Reward Scheme' under which persons who provided information to the GRA that led to the recovery of taxes were to be handsomely rewarded. Around this same time (on 11 March 2020 to be specific), the world was hit with bad news as the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The Finance Minister then presented his statement to Parliament on the economic impact of COVID-19 on 30 March. In this statement, a number of tax policy measures meant to provide some reliefs were announced by the Minister.

Quarter 2 (April, May, June)

In April, the COVID-19 National Trust Fund Act was passed to set up Ghana's COVID-19 Fund. In addition to this, the tax reliefs mentioned in the Minister's 30 March statement were approved by Parliament, with the GRA issuing guidance on some administrative measures to provide COVID-19 relief. The Income Tax Act was amended again (to provide for the pensions withdrawal tax waiver). The other COVID-19 tax incentives however did not require an amendment to existing laws as there were adequate provisions to cover these; the Minister therefore submitted various memoranda to Parliament to get these other reliefs effected. In May, the GRA issued another set of guidelines to taxpayers in the dailies on how the COVID-19 tax reliefs were to be operationalised. Still in May, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority issued guidelines to provide clarity to the general public on the tax waiver on pension withdrawals. Just when we thought the month of May was over with tax news, an Accra High Court ruled in the case of Bishop Daniel Obinim vs the Commissioner-General and Ecobank (2020). This case added to Ghana's jurisprudence in the area of tax administration, mainly around our tax objection procedures. To end the month of May, the GRA published nine (9) new practice notes covering a wide range of tax issues including the tax treatment of bad debts, taxation of clothing allowances and the excise duty sliding scale. In June, the GRA published a circular on how to obtain tax treaty benefits and also launched the Tax Audit and Quality Assurance Unit, to amongst others curb abuse of taxpayers by tax officials.

Quarter 3 (July, August, September)

In July, there was news of another court ruling, Republic vs Ghana Revenue Authority (ex parte: Export Finance Company Limited and Universal Merchant Bank), which also bordered on tax objections and the need to follow due process in objecting to assessments. Next in July, the Revenue Administration law was amended but gazetted on 6 October 2020. The most important highlight of the amendment was the introduction of the Independent Tax Appeals Board to provide an extra layer in Ghana's tax objections process. The Mid-Year Review of the 2020 National Budget was also read in the month of July. July ended with yet another court ruling; in the case of Kwasi Afrifa vs Ghana Revenue Authority (2020), which touched on a number of legal procedure issues, tax administration, tax objections and interpretation of statutes. In the month of August, the Communications Service Tax law was amended to reduce the rate of CST from 9% to 5% - a product of the Mid-Year Review of the 2020 National Budget. The amendment came into force on 15 September 2020. The GRA also began the conversion of Medium Taxpayer Offices and Small Taxpayer Offices into Taxpayer Service Centres (to offer convenience to taxpayers) and Area Offices (with centralised audit teams to improve audit quality). This was to be rolled out in phases up until 31 December 2020. In September, it was reported by the media that the Executive arm of Government has suspended portions of the Customs law dealing with the importation of salvage vehicles. That portion of the law was to come into force on 1 November 2020.

Quarter 4 (October, November, December)

In October, the new Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2412) was before Parliament. This new law which redefined to a large extent Ghana's entire transfer pricing landscape became effective in November 2020. Also, because of the then upcoming December elections, an 'Expenditure in Advance of Appropriation for 2021 Quarter 1' was presented to Parliament in lieu of a full blown 2021 national budget statement. In what was to be the final decided tax case of the year, an Accra High Court tax ruling in the case of Bishop Daniel Obinim vs Ghana Revenue Authority and Fidelity Bank Limited (2020) was made public. This case bordered on the tax objection process and the need to follow laid down legal and court procedures, among others. In the month of November, the United Arab Emirates ratified its DTA with Ghana and Ghana and Norway also signed a DTA. There was also news that the effective date of the Ghana-Czech Republic DTA (which entered into force in August 2020) was 1 January 2021. In December, the GRA issued a class ruling to the Ghana Association of Bankers (and employees of its members) regarding the tax treatment of clothing allowances, introducing significant changes to how these employment benefits were to be treated for tax purposes.

Bringing it All Together

As is evident from the above, there were quite a number of happenings in 2020 that will collectively determine to a large extent the direction in which the 2021 tax year (and indeed future tax years) is headed. What we can be excited about for now, is that Ghana's tax jurisprudence is getting richer with decided cases on taxation, we now have provisions for an alternative tax dispute resolution mechanism, multiple Double Taxation Agreements are being signed in addition to the existing ones for Ghana, and our tax administration regime is getting more efficient and more taxpayer-friendly, achieving the all important canons of taxation of "certainty" and "convenience".

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.