West Africa

Ghana Switch Cards

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will convert all National Identification numbers into Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) from today (April 1, 2021).

This is part of efforts by the government of Ghana to widen the tax net, by roping in eligible people who do not pay taxes especially those from the informal sector. This will also ensure that organisations can easily share important data with the GRA.

During his State of the Nation Address on March 9, 2021, President Akufo-Addo said that effective April 1, 2021, all National Identification numbers will become Tax Identification Numbers

Currently, the National Identification card which is popularly referred to as the Ghana Card has over 15 million people registered. These include both residents and non-residents, as well as legally and permanently resident foreign nationals.

It is the primary card that serves as proof of one’s identity, citizenship, and residence of the holder.

The card has all details of other national identification cards of the holder. If National Identification numbers are converted to TIN the tax net will grow from the current three million to about 15.5 million.

It will also increase the number of people on the SSNIT database from four million to 15.5 million.

The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev Ammishaddai Owusu Amoah in an interview with the media ahead of the commencement of the exercise said the GRA will be able to increase its revenue collection and help the government in its digitization agenda as all ID cards are gradually merged into the Ghana card.

“We are hopeful that even this year, revenue collection will increase, and even more so as the years go on, we will be able to identify more eligible taxpayers.”

The Commissioner-General further explained that there will be a transition period from April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, where both the TIN and Ghana Card PIN will be used simultaneously as the unique number for tax identification purposes. He added that after this period, it is expected that all existing TINs will be replaced with the Ghana Card PIN.

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