John Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has announced plans to exempt new businesses from paying corporate income tax for their first two years of operation if the NDC wins the December polls.
According to him, the programme is to allow mall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to stand on their feet before they start paying taxes.
Speaking at the NDC manifesto launch, Mahama highlighted the party’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and supporting these SMEs through the party’s ‘Adwumawura’ Programme.
“We have what we call the ‘Adwumawura’ programme and this is the entrepreneurial programme. Nobody says you must finish school and become an employee. You can finish school and become an employer and employ employees. So, every year we want to target 10,000 youth entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses.
“We will monitor them; we will supervise them until they are able to stand on their own feet and they will employ their colleagues instead of becoming employees themselves. Business development, we will exempt new businesses; that is small and medium enterprises, businesses that are registered, and personal income tax of those businesses from the first two years after they are incorporated.
“So, if you are a young person under this programme and you set up your business, for two years you won’t pay corporate income tax. You will start paying after two years because we want the business to be able to get grounding and be able to stand it its feet before they start paying taxes,” he stated.
