Tax Module
Ghana VAT, NHIL & GETFund
Real, itemized Ghana tax on your Sales invoices and Purchase bills — VAT, NHIL, and GETFund tracked and posted to your books as their own separate amounts, not one lump “tax” line. Every rate is yours to see, customize, or turn off to match your own tax adviser’s guidance.
Start here
1Before you start
You don’t have to use this at all. There are three ways to handle tax in FinAccounting, and they’re all valid:
| Option | What it is |
|---|---|
| None | No tax handling at all — invoices and bills carry no tax. |
| Basic | The simple flat tax rate under Settings → Company Settings (default_tax_rate) — one percentage applied to the whole invoice. This is what every company already had before this module existed, and it still works exactly the same if you never touch Settings → Tax. |
| Specific | A real, country-built tax pack — Ghana’s VAT + NHIL + GETFund today, with more countries following the same pattern later. This guide covers this option. |
FinAccounting calculates, tracks, and posts your Ghana tax to real ledger accounts so your books and reports are accurate — it does not file or submit anything to the Ghana Revenue Authority on your behalf. Every rate ships as an editable starting point cited to its legal source; your own tax adviser’s numbers always take priority over what’s seeded here.
2Activate a tax jurisdiction
Go to Settings → Tax. Under Tax jurisdiction, pick Ghana and click Save jurisdiction. Sales and Purchases immediately gain a real, calculating tax-code picker on each line — nothing changes on invoices/bills that don’t use one, and your existing flat tax rate keeps working for anything that doesn’t pick a code.
Switching back to the first option (no jurisdiction) at any time reverts Sales and Purchases to the simple flat rate — it never touches invoices already posted under a real tax code.
3Customize rates and codes
Still under Settings → Tax, once Ghana is active you’ll see every tax component (VAT, NHIL, GETFund) and every tax code (see Ghana tax codes below) that ships with the Ghana pack:
- Turn a component or code off — uncheck it and click Save. A company that, say, doesn’t need GETFund tracked separately can disable just that component while keeping VAT and NHIL active.
- Change a rate — enter a new percentage, an effective date, and (recommended) a source reference — your tax adviser’s name, or the official notice you’re following — then click Save new rate. This never overwrites history: the old rate stays on record exactly as it was, closed off the day before your new one starts.
An invoice or bill snapshots the rates that were active the moment it first used a tax code. Editing that invoice later — or changing the rate afterward — never reaches back and changes what already posted. You always see exactly what a past transaction was really taxed at.
4Using tax codes on invoices and bills
Once Ghana is active, every Sales invoice line and every Purchases line gets a Tax dropdown. Pick a code (e.g. GH-STD-20) and that line’s tax is calculated for real, itemized into VAT/NHIL/GETFund, and added to the invoice or bill total. Leave it on No tax code and that line falls back to your ordinary flat tax rate instead — you can freely mix both on the same document.
5How GL posting works
For a double-entry company, a Sales invoice with a GHS 1,000 standard-rated line posts:
| Line | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts Receivable | GHS 1,200 | — |
| Sales Revenue | — | GHS 1,000 |
| VAT Payable | — | GHS 150 |
| NHIL Payable | — | GHS 25 |
| GETFund Levy Payable | — | GHS 25 |
A Purchases bill using the same code posts the input side as a real recoverable asset instead of folding it into the expense:
| Line | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Expense / Inventory | GHS 1,000 | — |
| VAT Recoverable | GHS 150 | — |
| NHIL Recoverable | GHS 25 | — |
| GETFund Levy Recoverable | GHS 25 | — |
| Accounts Payable | — | GHS 1,200 |
Every account above is created automatically the first time it’s actually needed — nothing to set up by hand first.
Reference
Ghana tax codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
GH-STD-20 | Standard rated supply — VAT 15% + NHIL 2.5% + GETFund 2.5%, itemized separately. |
GH-ZERO-0 | Zero-rated supply — no tax charged, but the supply is still recorded as taxable-at-zero. |
GH-EXEMPT | VAT-exempt supply. |
GH-OOS | Out-of-scope supply — outside VAT entirely. |
All four rates and codes are seeded as an editable starting point, effective 2026-01-01, cited to the VAT Act 2013 (Act 870), NHIL Act 2018 (Act 966), and GETFund Act 2000 (Act 581) as amended — see Customize rates and codes to review or change any of them.
GL accounts used
One payable account per component on the sales side (e.g. “VAT Payable”, “NHIL Payable”), and one recoverable asset account per component on the purchase side (e.g. “VAT Recoverable”). Each is created the first time your company actually charges or pays that component — a company that never activates Ghana never sees any of them.
What this module doesn’t do yet
This first release covers VAT/NHIL/GETFund on Sales and Purchases only. VAT withholding, income withholding tax, Corporate Income Tax, and a full SSNIT & Pensions module are planned as their own follow-ups on this same engine.
This module calculates and posts to your books — it doesn’t file returns or submit to the GRA. That stays a manual process until an official, verified GRA integration exists.
A Simple-mode company can still pick and calculate real tax codes on its invoices/bills — it just won’t generate the itemized journal entries described above.