Income Taxes

Domestic income taxes

• Corporate Tax: This is the tax paid by companies on their profits in the year. The tax rate is 25%.
• Personal Income Tax: Self-employed persons are required to pay Income tax at graduated rates in four equal installments. The current Personal Income Tax rates took effect from January 2016.
• Pay As You Earn (PAYE): The PAYE contributions are with holdings from salaries of employees in order to satisfy their income tax responsibilities. The PAYE is computed with the Personal Income Tax rates.
• Please click here for more information.

In the past, the top personal income-tax rate was only 30 percent, but that rate was encountered at an income threshold of $5,400 per year. The 20 percent rate was at $2,700 and the 15 percent rate was at $270 per year.

In addition, Ghanaians paid a 12.5 percent Value Added Tax VAT. There was also a "wealth tax," currently suspended, but which could come back at any moment. Even the cloud of a wealth tax discourages the accumulation of wealth.

2017 Budget

• Click here for more information regarding the corporate tax for the past 10 years.
• Click here to view the detailed budget statements of 2017 year and the years before.

2005 Budget

• Corporate tax reduces from 32.5 per cent to 28 per cent.

2004 Budget

• Increase in the minimum tax free threshold from 1.2 million to 1.5 million
• Reduction in corporate income tax rate from 32.5 percent to 30 percent effective next financial year.
• Special tax rate of 25 percent for companies listing on Stock Exchange for the first time.
• 5-year tax holiday for new agro-processing firms.
• Revised taxes for agro-processing as follows:
• Accra and Tema - 20 percent.
• Other Regional Capitals - 10 percent
• Outside Regional Capitals - zero
• For 3 Northern Regions zero tax rates for Agro-processing firms irrespective of location.
• 7-year tax holiday for waste processing enterprises.
• 5-year tax holiday for companies investing in production of cocoa industrial by-products.