An Effective Utilization of Personal Tax Relief Scheme in Ghana, a Case Study in the Kwahu-West Municipality, Eastern Region - Ghana

Abstract

Tax relief is a legally approved allowance intended to reduce the taxable income of individual workers thereby lessen the tax burden. It is intended to cushion the effect of tax on the individual and to make it bearable for him or her to pay the tax. Since tax reliefs have as an objective to lessen the tax burden of the taxpayer and ultimately bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, governments all over the world have come out with different tax relief schemes. Ghana's government is no exception to this. Unfortunately, it appeared that the utilization of the scheme is not effective. This whipped the interest of the researcher to find out the awareness and the level of assessment by taxpayers particularly, employees on the tax relief schemes in Ghana. The population of the study comprised all employees of the private and public sectors of Ghana both formal and informal sectors. The respondents were purposively selected from Nkawkaw (Kwahu-West Municipality) in the Eastern region of Ghana. Primary data was collected to serve as the main source of data through the use of a self-structure questionnaire. The researcher distributed one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires and retrieved one hundred and nineteen (119) and used them for the study. The study was to assess the effectiveness of the utilization of personal tax reliefs. The study revealed that most Ghanaians are not taking advantage of the scheme. In view of this, recommendations were made which I strongly believe that when they are comprehended, will make the relief scheme attractive and subsequently lead to effective utilization.