Ghana public holidays 2026, VAT rate and tax data
Ghana: VAT rate 15% since 1 Jan 2026; 15 public holidays in 2026 (next: Farmer's Day, 4 Dec 2026); corporate tax rate 25%; minimum wage 21.77 GHS/day; policy interest rate 14%; inflation rate (CPI) 5.2%.
12 series, each cited to the official source it was verified against; most recently verified 29 Oct 2026. Currency GHS.
verified recentlyre-verification due soonstaleColour is the age of the last check against the series' own update cycle.
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{ "country": "GH", "series": "vat", "value": 15, "unit": "percent", "effective_from": "2026-01-01", "last_confirmed": "2026-09-11", "source": { "name": "Ghana Revenue Authority", "url": "https://gra.gov.gh/domestic-tax/tax-types/vat/" } }
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Ghana public holidays 2026
15 days in 2026; next: Farmer's Day on 4 Dec 2026. Official source: Ministry of the Interior, Republic of Ghana · last verified 15 Jul 2026
Fixed by law 6 Confirmed 6 Substitute 3
| Date | Holiday | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan 2026 Thu | New Year's Day | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 9 Jan 2026 Fri | Constitution Day observed; statutory 7 Jan moved to Friday by Executive Instrument |
Substitute | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 6 Mar 2026 Fri | Independence Day | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 20 Mar 2026 Fri | Eid-ul-Fitr | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 21 Mar 2026 Sat | Shaqq Day | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 23 Mar 2026 Mon | Additional public holiday in lieu of Shaqq Day, which fell on a Saturday |
Substitute | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 3 Apr 2026 Fri | Good Friday | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 6 Apr 2026 Mon | Easter Monday | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 1 May 2026 Fri | May Day (Workers' Day / Labour Day) | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 27 May 2026 Wed | Eid-ul-Adha | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 3 Jul 2026 Fri | Republic Day observed; statutory 1 Jul moved to Friday by Executive Instrument |
Substitute | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 21 Sep 2026 Mon | Founder's Day | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 4 Dec 2026 Fri | Farmer's Day | Confirmed | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 25 Dec 2026 Fri | Christmas Day | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
| 26 Dec 2026 Sat | Boxing Day | Fixed by law | Ministry of the Interior, Republic of… |
Status is read from the record: fixed by law follows from a standing rule (a fixed date or the Easter computus); confirmed is dated in the cited official calendar and not flagged provisional; estimated is provisional or moon-sighting dependent; substitute stands in for a statutory day that fell on a weekend or was moved. Hover a status for the reason.
Every current Ghana value
Rate schedules and breakdowns
VAT standard rate
15 percent · in force from 2026-01-01 · Official source: Ghana Revenue Authority · last verified 11 Sep 2026
Components
| name | rate |
|---|---|
| VAT standard rate | 15 |
| National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) | 2.5 |
| Ghana Education Trust Fund Levy (GETFund) | 2.5 |
Other statutory rates
| band | rate | applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| zero | 0 | Zero-rated supplies under the Second Schedule (sections 29(1)(b) and 36) to the Value Added Tax Act 2025 (Act 1151), in force 1 January 2026: export of goods; freight and insurance services directly attributable to exports; stevedoring and port operation services; locally manufactured sanitary towels; and locally manufactured textiles. | Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151)… |
| TRAP — EXPORT OF SERVICES IS NO LONGER ZERO-RATED. Act 1151 replaced Act 870 and its Second Schedule carries no line for services consumed outside Ghana, so a service exported from Ghana attracts the standard 15% from 1 January 2026. Commentators read this as an unintended… | |||
Withholding tax rates
8–20% across 4 withholding taxes — no single rate · in force from 2015-09-01 · Official source: Ghana Revenue Authority - Withholding Tax: non-resident rates table - 'Dividend… · last verified 10 Aug 2026
Rates by payment type
| key | label | rate | applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividends | Dividends | 8 | dividends paid by a resident company to a non-resident shareholder; final withholding | GRA - Withholding Tax, non-resident… |
| The same 8% applies to dividends paid to residents (also final). Repatriated after-tax branch profits of a non-resident company likewise bear 8%. | ||||
| interest | Interest | 8 | interest paid to a non-resident person other than an individual; final withholding absent a Ghanaian permanent establishment | GRA - Withholding Tax, non-resident… |
| GRA's non-resident table states the 8% rate 'excluding individuals'; interest paid to individuals is dealt with under separate First Schedule rules. | ||||
| royalties | Royalties and natural resource payments | 15 | royalties, natural resource payments and rents paid to non-resident persons; final withholding absent a Ghanaian permanent establishment | GRA - Withholding Tax, non-resident… |
| services | Management and technical service fees; goods, works or services | 20 | management and technical service fees, and payments for goods, works or any services, paid to non-resident persons; final withholding absent a Ghanaian permanent establishment | GRA - Withholding Tax, non-resident… |
| Sector rates also exist for non-residents: income from telecommunication and transportation business 15%; payments to petroleum subcontractors 15%; general insurance premiums 5%. Contrast the much lower resident rates (e.g. 3% goods, 7.5% services), which are not final. | ||||
Personal income tax brackets
0–35% across 7 bands · in force from 2026-09-01 · Official source: Ghana Revenue Authority · last verified 9 Oct 2026
| min | max | rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 7056 | 0 |
| 7056 | 8016 | 5 |
| 8016 | 9216 | 10 |
| 9216 | 44016 | 17.5 |
| 44016 | 236016 | 25 |
| 236016 | 600000 | 30 |
| 600000 | — | 35 |
Statutory social-insurance contributions
0–18.5% across 5 contribution branches · in force from 2026-01-01 · Official source: National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), ss. 1, 3(1)–(10), 30(3), 31, 58, 59, 60… · last verified 8 Aug 2026
| key | label | rate total | rate employee | rate employer | unit | base | currency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mandatory_pension_total | Mandatory contribution to the Contributory Three-Tier Pension Scheme (Tier 1 + Tier 2 combined) — the only payroll charge | 18.5 | 5.5 | 13 | percent | The worker's "salary" as defined in Act 766 — in practice basic salary. The statutory definition covers emoluments earned while on duty under the contract of employment and paid in cash at fixed or determinable intervals for normal periods of work, plus leave pay and any prescribed cost-of-living allowance, but EXPRESSLY EXCLUDES presents made by the employer, the value of any food concession, house rent allowances, overtime allowance, travelling allowance, bonus, commission, or any other similar allowance. Applied per month, floored at GHS 587.80 and capped at maximum insurable earnings of GHS 69,000. | GHS |
| THIS IS THE ONLY ROW A PAYROLL ENGINE SHOULD CHARGE. The other rows below are allocations of this one — adding them double-counts. Employee deduction 5.5%, employer cost 13%, total 18.5%. At the ceiling: employee GHS 3,795.00, employer GHS 8,970.00, total GHS 12,765.00 per… | |||||||
| ssnit_tier1 | First Tier — Basic National Social Security Scheme, administered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) | 13.5 | — | — | percent | ALLOCATION — DO NOT ADD. 13.5 percentage points of the 18.5% charged in mandatory_pension_total, on the same basic-salary base, floored at GHS 587.80 and capped at maximum insurable earnings of GHS 69,000 per month. | GHS |
| ALLOCATION OF mandatory_pension_total — NOT AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE. rate_employee and rate_employer are null because the statute does not assign this tier between the parties: it fixes the party shares at the aggregate level (worker 5.5% / employer 13% of the 18.5%) and then… | |||||||
| tier2_occupational | Second Tier — mandatory fully funded and privately managed occupational pension scheme | 5 | — | — | percent | ALLOCATION — DO NOT ADD. 5 percentage points of the 18.5% charged in mandatory_pension_total. The Tier-2 base is "pensionable salary", defined by L.I. 1990, reg. 156 as "the salary on which social security contribution is paid" — i.e. the same insurable-earnings base as Tier 1, floored at GHS 587.80 and capped at GHS 69,000 per month. | GHS |
| ALLOCATION OF mandatory_pension_total — NOT AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE, and NOT an extra 5% deducted from the employee. Party shares are null for the same reason as Tier 1. Maximum GHS 3,450.00 and minimum GHS 29.39 per month — BOTH DERIVED, not published: see the caveats field before… | |||||||
| nhis_transfer_from_tier1 | National Health Insurance Scheme transfer out of social security contributions | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | percent | ALLOCATION — DO NOT ADD. 2.5 percentage points carved OUT of the 13.5% already remitted to SSNIT. Zero additional cost to employer or employee. | GHS |
| ALLOCATION — NOT AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE, which is why both party rates are 0. Of the 13.5% SSNIT receives, 11% is retained for pensions and 2.5% is transferred to the National Health Insurance Authority; SSNIT's own member page confirms the 11 / 2.5 split and that an active… | |||||||
| workmens_compensation | Workmen's compensation (employment injury) — employer liability, no contribution scheme | — | 0 | — | not applicable (no statutory contribution rate) | None. There is no insurable earnings base because there is no contribution. | GHS |
| INCLUDED DELIBERATELY WITH NULL RATES SO THE BRANCH IS VISIBLY ABSENT RATHER THAN SILENTLY MISSING. Ghana runs employment-injury cover as direct employer liability, not as a funded social-insurance branch: under s. 2(1), where an employee sustains personal injury by accident… | |||||||
Tax filing deadlines
5 deadline rules · in force from — · Official source: 5 rules, each cited to its own official source; series-level citation is the… · last verified 29 Oct 2026
| key | tax | obligation | label | frequency | applies to | confidence | last confirmed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vat-return-payment-monthly | vat | return_and_payment | VAT/NHIL/GETFund return and payment — monthly | monthly | VAT-registered taxpayers | primary | 2026-10-29 | GRA |
| Same page: 'October returns must be submitted by the last working day in November'; payment due no later than the date the return is submitted. GRA's tax calendar (gra.gov.gh/tax-calendar/) also lists 'submit VAT/NHIL' at month end. The VAT Act 2025 (Act 1151) PDF on gra.gov.gh… | ||||||||
| paye-return-payment-monthly | paye | return_and_payment | Monthly PAYE return and payment | monthly | Employers, on behalf of employees | primary | 2026-10-29 | GRA |
| The PAYE page states the return deadline; GRA's tax calendar (https://gra.gov.gh/tax-calendar/) states '15th pay PAYE and withholding taxes', so payment is due the same day. | ||||||||
| cit-provisional-instalments-quarterly | cit | provisional_payment | Corporate income tax — quarterly self-assessment instalments | quarterly | Companies (self-assessment) | primary | 2026-10-29 | GRA |
| Four instalments on the last day of each quarter (31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December for a calendar year). GRA's examples use the calendar year; applying the quarters to a non-December basis period is an interpretation. | ||||||||
| cit-provisional-self-assessment | cit | provisional_return | Provisional (estimated) self-assessment | annual | Every company | primary | 2026-10-29 | GRA |
| 'Within the first quarter' modelled as the last day of month 3 of the year of assessment. Estimates may be revised until the last day of the basis period. Anchor keeps the page's spacing 'self- assessment'. | ||||||||
| cit-annual-return | cit | return | Annual income tax return (companies) | annual | All taxpayers filing a return on income (companies included) | primary | 2026-10-29 | GRA |
| 'Four months after the end of the year' modelled as the last day of the 4th month after the basis-period end (30 April for a December year end). Statutory basis per government reproductions: Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896) s 124(1), 'not later than four months after the end of… | ||||||||
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