GRA: 20% Tax on Digital Services Not New, Won’t Increase Prices

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has assured consumers that the 20% tax on qualifying cross-border digital services is not a new levy and that the introduction of bank-led collection will not lead to additional price increases.

Commissioner-General of the GRA, Anthony Sarpong, explained that the tax component is already incorporated into payments for services such as Netflix, Google and Amazon, but the Authority has faced challenges obtaining complete information on transaction volumes and tax remittances.

Speaking on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Mr Sarpong said the new arrangement would enable the GRA to collect the applicable taxes directly through banks rather than depend solely on digital service providers to remit the funds after receiving payments.

“The fees you pay for Netflix today have VAT. If you are buying web services from Google or Amazon, there is a VAT component on it, and these entities remit to GRA on a monthly basis,” he said.

“However, from GRA’s point of view, we don’t have complete visibility of the total transactions and amounts that are remitted to us,” he added.

Under the new system, banks will collect and remit applicable taxes on qualifying cross-border digital transactions made with Ghana-issued payment cards. The affected services include subscriptions to platforms such as Netflix and ChatGPT.

Mr Sarpong said the arrangement would ensure that the tax component already included in the price is channelled to the government, while the remaining amount is paid to the service provider.

“When you are paying for your Netflix, what will then happen is that this system will take the VAT which is already priced into Netflix and give that to the Government of Ghana, and the portion that belongs to Netflix would then also go to Netflix,” he explained.

The GRA maintains that the revised collection mechanism is intended to improve tax compliance, strengthen oversight of cross-border digital transactions and ensure that the government receives the revenue due from these services without imposing an additional cost on consumers.