KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF OPERATORS OF NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) IN THE SAVELUGU-NANTON MUNICIPALITY TOWARDS TAXATION

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  NonGovernmental  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.