MINISTRY OF FINANCE/GRA ACCEPT IT, YOU HAVE INCREASED THE TAX BURDEN ON GHANAIANS BY HIDING BEHIND LEGALITIES I have been thinking about how to break down GRA's new or amended policy on cross-border VAT to highlight its practical implications. The following are my initial thoughts. I may share a technical note later. GRA's explanation that "we are not introducing a new tax but we are just putting a mechanism to collect an existing tax" is clever grammar, but bad economics. What GRA has actually done is broaden the base of VAT to cover transactions you never paid VAT on before. That, by definition, is a new tax to you. They admit it themselves. Commissioner-General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong says 92 foreign companies were registered and charging. Now GRA says it has identified over 100 additional foreign providers who were NOT charging. And in other briefings, officials say over 1,000 entities will eventually be roped in. There is nothing wrong with broadening the tax base to realize more revenues. But don't deceive people that such policy decision does not impose a new or additional tax burden to the taxpayer. Broadening the base is qualitatively not different from introducing a completely new tax in so far as they both impose additional incidence on the taxpayer. Taxpayers are concerned about the economic incidence on their purse/pocket and not the legal regimes of taxes. This is legally not a new tax but economically a new tax. You enact the law, the taxpayer pays. Think about that. For those 1,000+ new companies, you never paid 20% VAT before. From October 15, you will. If you used Canva for your business flyers, paid to boost a post for your hair business, or paid for CapCut Pro, you never paid VAT. Now you will. The same applies to, among others, services such as Netflix, Spotify, Betway, Disney, Zoom, Google Workspace, Roblox, McAfee, ExpressVPN, Booking. com, Uber, and Bolt. Any amendment to a tax policy that imposes an obligation or burden on you that you did not have to suffer before *is a new tax to you*. Don't let them fanfool you with Act 870 and Act 1151. The law may have existed in a book. The deduction from your pocket is new. Not just the rate but the construct of the Tax itself is problematic Charging 20% is too much. But the rate is only part of the problem. First, it is inequitable. A student in Ghana studying at University of Ghana pays no VAT because local education is exempt. The same student studying the same accredited course at University of London online, Coursera or Udemy pays 20% because the server is abroad. Two students, same country, same qualification, different tax. How is that fair? Second, it taxes productivity at the same rate as entertainment. Netflix and a nursing revision course both attract 20%. Kenya charges 16%, Nigeria 7.5%, South Africa 15%. None stacks two levies on top. Third, double taxation is real. GRA says banks will ensure merchants display VAT-exclusive prices and you won't pay twice. What mechanism has the GRA put in place to address merchants who fail to display such tax salience and deliberately cause merchant errors to charge sales tax on exports using the origin principle? Again, what power does GRA have over a US company to stop charging US sales tax? What portal exists for a freelancer to prove he was double-taxed and get a refund? 1/2