The impact of tax exemptions granted to CSO's on revenue mobilization targets: The case of CSOs in Accra-Ghana

Abstract

Presently, there are plethora of controversies as regards whether Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) should be taxed in Ghana. Against this backdrop, the study examined the impact of tax exemptions to CSO’s on revenue mobilization targets in Ghana using descriptive statistics, exploratory and cross sectional surveys Quantitative research embodying primary data in the form of questionnaires were administered to 240 respondents from selected CSO’s in Ghana from a population of 350. Non probability sampling framework in the form of simple random sampling was used in the selection of the research participants. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS, Version26). The findings show that 96% of respondents strongly agreed that there was a symbiotic relationship between tax exemptions to CSOs by government since CSOs help to attract investors into the economy through advocacy for transparent and accountable government structures, 88% response rate strongly disagreed that tax exemptions to CSOs should be broadened beyond just corporate taxes as currently entails in section 97 of the Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896), 100% of the respondents strongly agreed that business incomes of CSOs should be subject to tax cognizance with section 97 of the Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896) which stipulates that any other income from business earned by a CSO must be subject to tax, while 81% of the respondents disagreed that tax exemptions to CSOs negatively affected revenue mobilization. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the current tax exemption to CSOs which covers only corporate taxes should be maintained since it has no negative impact on revenue mobilization and to help build a more resilient civil society organization and concludes that tax exemptions to CSOs do not adversely affect revenue mobilization