The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) must Tax the Ghana Blackstars

Article by: Kwabena Brako-Powers, Author (Lost Leadership Conscience)

The Ghana Blackstar with the Coach Dr. Kwesi Appiah

The issue of taxing Ghanaian footballers by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been a silent battle between the former and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) especially after the South Africa 2010 World Cup where the Ghana Blackstar upped their performance. However, the GFA dissented to the issue of taxing the men and women who benefit from the tax payers money. I believe the debate must be stepped up leading us to taxing the players. If the average Ghanaian is taxed on his meager salary how about these players who get to benefit from the taxes?

Why will the GFA plead for the players to be exempted from paying their tax on any money they earn in the country? Again, on which logic does the GFA falls on to shield the players?

The likes of Stephen Appiah, John Mensah, Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan, and Kelvin

GRA Logo

Prince Boateng among others pay tax to the resident countries of their clubs. Britain, Spain, Italy, Belgium, South Africa and Germany among others tax our players without complain. Yet when it comes to our players paying tax in Ghana, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) comes in touting some mind-warped ideologies to explain its case. And this wanton defense of the players has come at a cost to the state. This issue of unnecessarily defending the players by the GFA has brought immaturity, irresponsibility, indiscipline, un-accountability and un-patriotism from the players. It’s normal for people who enjoy from where they didn’t sow to be defensive to change. Why can’t the GFA send an MOU to Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain to exempt the Ghanaian players from taxes?

We should be willing to mature as a people. In a related development how can a President order a jet filled with dollars to the Ghana team in Brazil? Upon all the works of the Ministry of Communication in terms of exploring IT related softwares, the leadership of the team couldn’t resist even the threat of the players? And the over-all Commander-in-chief of the nation couldn’t bring sanity but rather had to order a private Jet to do that work? Standards have indeed fallen in Ghana. Leadership standards by this Government are really disappointing and weak to the chagrin of their own party faithfuls. Mahama has proven right that rhetoric is always inefficient when it comes to leadership delivery. His codes are incompetence and poor decision. Well these amount to predictability. We are almost always sure that the President will make mistake in every other decision he takes on behalf of the people of Ghana. And what is damaging is that, predictability in the line of politics means vulnerability. Ghana is so doomed my word!

Now Brazil wants to tax the players and they are right to do so. You can’t carry that seemingly ‘huge’ amount in their country and expect to be free. They need to tax every one of them including their officials forthright. And like other countries, Ghana must begin to re-consider the issue of taxing our players without delay. They earn windfall and we must position ourselves to benefit from that. Whatever they earn from us and whatever they earn outside must both be taxed. This is why the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) must step-up the preparation of its documentation to tax the Ghana footballers. They are not any special individuals in this country. Remember we contributed to who they are and they owe their existence to the nation. When we are able to do this, we’ll instill in them good paying tenets of discipline, behavioral maturity, responsibility, accountability, love for country and patriotism. If the govern exhibit love for country when they pay their tax, then the governor should be prepared to do same. We need to be responsible and show maturity for once.