Rent is income, and the Ghana Revenue Authority taxes it separately from a salary. It is called rent tax, and it falls on anyone who earns money from letting or leasing a property - a whole house, a flat, a single room in a compound house or a shop.

The rates

Premises Rent tax
Residential - a home 8% of the rent
Commercial and other non-residential - a shop, office, warehouse 15% of the rent

The rate is on the gross rent: what the tenant pays, before repairs, agents’ fees or anything else.

So on a two-year advance for a flat, the tax is 8% of the whole advance, due when the advance is received, not spread over the two years.

When to pay

Rent tax must be paid within 30 days of receiving the rent, at a GRA Domestic Tax Revenue Division office. Late payment carries interest, compounded monthly.

You need a TIN - for an individual, the Ghana Card number - to pay.

— Getting a TIN

When the tenant withholds it

If the tenant is a business or an organisation that GRA treats as a withholding agent - a company renting an office, or an employer renting a house for a member of staff - it deducts the tax from the rent and pays it to GRA itself. The landlord receives the rent less the tax, and should get a withholding tax credit certificate from the tenant as proof it was paid.

Ask for the certificate every time. Without it, GRA has no record that the tax on that rent was paid, and the landlord may be asked for it again.

A private individual renting a home does not withhold: the landlord pays.

Keep the receipts

GRA asks landlords to keep copies of every rent tax receipt and to produce them when its officers inspect. Keep with them the tenancy agreement and a record of every payment of rent - which a tenancy agreement and rent receipts should show anyway.

— Your tenancy agreement — Rent receipt template

What it does not change

  • Rent tax is not paid by the tenant on a private letting. A landlord who adds it to the rent is raising the rent.
  • It does not make an advance lawful. The Rent Act’s limit on advances applies whatever tax is paid on them.

— The rent advance — VAT, withholding and the other taxes — PAYE and income tax

Questions go to any GRA office or info@gra.gov.gh; the rates and the deadline are on GRA’s rent tax page, https://gra.gov.gh/portfolio/rent-tax/.