The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, has announced that cryptocurrency traders in Ghana will not be exempt from taxation as the Authority prepares to roll out new digital tools to monitor gains from virtual assets.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, Mr Sarpong highlighted the growing relevance of cryptocurrency in Ghana’s economy. He noted:

“One interesting area is crypto. The crypto is evolving and growing very well. And today we have people who are dealing with cryptocurrency, and they are making money. That area is evolving.

Our laws are coming up. So again, we are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bank of Ghana to bring the regulation. But in terms of tax laws, one, the tax law is still not a new one. If you make a profit or gain, you’re supposed to pay that.”

He further explained that the GRA is enhancing its systems to track and capture digital transactions. According to him:

“So today, the technology we are going to deploy will be able to bring in all the crypto accounts into focus, and then we will work with these individuals to make sure that we bring them into the tax net.”

Mr Sarpong emphasised that this initiative forms part of a broader agenda to align Ghana’s tax regime with the fast-growing digital economy. He stated:

“Digitisation and the digital economy are here with us and into the future, and most importantly, even the taxpayer of the future is digital. And that’s why we as GRA are preparing ourselves to be digitally ready for today and into the future, so we can continue to deliver on our mandate of revenue mobility.”

The Commissioner-General added that beyond cryptocurrency, the Authority is also seeking to close gaps in online transactions to ensure compliance with existing tax rules. He pointed out that:

“So today, online business tax rules already exist, which is, for example, the VAT. If you are buying as you walk into a physical shop, you pay VAT. In the same way, when you are buying online, you pay VAT.

So what we are doing is using the technology so that when people buy online, we can access the VAT and the tax at the point of payment so that today’s challenge of not finding them to come and follow, or not even knowing what they have done online, will be a thing of the past.

And that introduction of technology we are working on, again, that’s something we believe that by September, we will deploy that technology and run a pilot for the end of the year and scale it up.”

He stressed that the government’s strategy is not to create multiple new taxes but to strengthen the enforcement of existing ones. As he concluded:

“So you know the policy of President Mahama and the Finance Minister is that we are not introducing so many new taxes because we already have within our tax laws sufficient measures that, once implemented, will help us deepen and expand the tax net.”

In essence, the GRA’s renewed focus on cryptocurrency and online transactions reflects Ghana’s determination to adapt its tax system to the realities of a digital economy.