Ghana has double taxation agreements with six other countries
Ghana has double taxation agreements (DTAs) with six other countries apart from Switzerland.
The Swiss Embassy in Accra issued a press statement Tuesday January 5, 2010 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com in which it announced the coming into force of the agreement between Ghana and Switzerland on January 1, 2010.
The agreement between Ghana and Switzerland was signed in July 2008 and ratified by the parliaments of the two countries in 2009.
Ghana has signed similar agreements with the following six countries; France, UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany and South Africa, according to information on the website of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).
Ghana uses the instrumentality of DTAs to rationalize the tax obligations of investors who come from global tax sourced jurisdictions with a view to saving the affected investors from the incidence of double taxation by both their home governments and the host country, the GIPC says.
Ghana is committed to entering into DTAs with interested countries with the ultimate objective of freeing investment capital and thereby securing the investment capital from being eroded by the effects of taxation, it adds.
The DTAs save investors in the participating countries money, because they are not liable to pay taxes in both countries. For instance, if a Swiss investor who invests directly into Ghana pays taxes in Switzerland, he is not liable to pay taxes on the same investment in Ghana.
According to the statement from the Swiss Embassy, the agreement will protect investors from the two countries from double taxation on income, wealth and capital gains.
Specifically, Swiss direct investment in Ghana and Ghanaian direct investments in Switzerland will be encouraged and withholding tax on dividends, interest, licence royalties and service fees will be limited, it added.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
i dont get it, this agreement is to prevent double taxation as said in the story, that it will protect investors from double taxation but what i simply dont get is, how many ghanaian companies invest in these countries and how large is the difference b/n taxation on foreign companies in their respective countries and that charged on them in ghana and how many choose to pay the tax in ghana instead of their countries?