The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has launched a fresh clampdown on landlords and foreign nationals using residential properties as cover for commercial activities to evade taxes, warning that offenders will face stiff sanctions.
The move follows intelligence gathered from recent enforcement operations, which uncovered a growing trend of homes being quietly converted into business centres, often operating outside the tax net.
According to the Authority, these practices are contributing to significant revenue leakages and undermining compliance efforts.
During a targeted exercise in East Legon and parts of Tema, GRA enforcement teams inspected several residential properties suspected of hosting unregistered businesses. What they found, officials say, confirms a widespread pattern.
Accra Area Manager of the GRA, Joseph Annan, revealed that many of the businesses identified were not consistently issuing VAT receipts. “Non-issuance of VAT… they are selling but then of course once in a while they do issue but then most times they don’t,” he said, pointing to deliberate attempts to stay off the radar.
He further disclosed that some of these properties have been leased to foreign nationals, particularly Chinese operators, who are using them for trading activities under the guise of residential occupancy.
“What we have gathered here is that many of these houses around have been given to Chinese and that’s what they do,” he noted.
Describing the situation on the ground, Joseph Annan painted a picture of neighbourhoods where what appears to be ordinary housing is anything but that.
“You see the houses as residential… but that is not it. They are selling,” he said, adding that more enforcement sweeps are planned. “We went to the next lane and found many of them there… we’ll come in very early and then deal with them.”
The GRA is also shifting part of the responsibility to landlords, insisting they cannot remain indifferent while their properties are used to evade taxes. Joseph Annan was blunt: “It’s the owner not helping us… these are houses built by Ghanaians for residential. So if somebody’s doing business and is supposed to pay taxes, once you take your rent and go to sleep, it’s not helping us.”
The Authority maintains that both property owners and tenants found culpable will be prosecuted, as it intensifies a nationwide compliance drive aimed at expanding the tax base and boosting domestic revenue mobilisation.
