Axim (W/R), April 6, GNA 97 The Western Regional Head of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Francis Sapathy, has said business operators are supposed to keep their VAT receipts for at least six years before destroying them.

He said VAT officers would intermittently undertake visits to businesses to perform cross auditing and that if the business operators destroy their receipts before such visits there would be dire consequences.

Mr Sapathy said this at a day's workshop organised by the GRA for traders in Axim on Wednesday to educate them on the VAT Amendment Act 810.

He said business operators with the threshold of GH¢ 90,000 and below within a year would attract a flat VAT rate of 3 percent. "In view of this, retailers, wholesalers, service providers and manufacturers that fall within this category would be required to pay the monthly flat rate to the VAT Service", he said. Businesses with threshold above GH¢ 90, 000 would pay the standard VAT rate of 15 percent and urged business operators to keep records of every transaction. Mr Sapathy said businesses that qualify to register with the VAT Service should do so to avoid being closed down and urged those who had already registered with the Service to submit their monthly returns on time. He warned that any business entity that gives false or misleading information to the Service in order to evade paying taxes would face the full rigours of the law. He said the region had registered 3,200 traders and that the tax regime is going through changes to improve upon the system and make the collection of taxes easier.

On the integration of the VAT Service, Internal Revenue Service and CEPS to constitute Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr Sapathy said it had brought effective tax management and avoided the duplication of services. He noted that now there is one Commissioner General in charge of suppo= rt