Abstract:
A former South African Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel stated that the
obligation to pay one’s fair share of taxes as and when they fall due is part of
the new morality which democratic governance must inculcate in every South
African. He accepted that tax evasion and fraud are among the most insidious
forms of criminality that plague the South African society and that millions of
Rand are diverted every day from the fiscus by tax criminals (Oberholzer
2008). Limited research on taxpayers’ knowledge and attitudes of Non
Governmental Organisations (NGOs) has been conducted in Ghana. This
research reports the results of a study carried out amongst Non-Governmental
Organisations in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality by means of interviews
and questionnaires. This study employed a cross-sectional survey to obtain
data from respondents. Eighty members of staff of NGOs and twenty eight
members of staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) were sampled for
the study. The stratified sampling technique was used in the study. Both
descriptive and inferential statistics were used. This research is important
because it will assist government to raise the much needed revenue for
development, it will assist government to cut down deficit financing and
provide a blue print for effectively taxing NGOs. Among the study’s
objectives were to: assess the knowledge of NGOs of their tax obligations;
Two sets of questionnaire were used to solicit the views of sampled NGOs and
officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority. Among findings of study were that:
most NGOs have poor knowledge and understanding of their tax obligations; and that no programme exists for sensitizing NGOs on their rights and
obligations.
