Last updated: 2026-08-27 Compliance model: Live continuous transaction control. Every taxable person must issue invoices through a GRA-certified system that stamps each one with a daily key and transmits it to the authority in real time, or within 24 hours when offline. Universal since 1 January 2026 under Act 1151, after a phased rollout from an October 2022 pilot.
🇬🇭Ghana's Certified Invoicing System, branded E-VAT, has been mandatory for every taxable person since 1 January 2026, when the Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151) replaced a phased onboarding programme with a general statutory duty. Invoices are stamped by an accredited system and transmitted to the GRA in real time; the invoicing system is also the reporting channel. Onboarding and enforcement are still in progress.
E-invoicing mandate
B2GACTIVENo separate B2G rule. Supplies to government run through the same Certified Invoicing System every taxable person must use since January 2026.
B2BACTIVEAct 1151 s.43(2) makes certified invoicing a duty on every taxable person from 1 January 2026, replacing the phased programme before it.
B2CACTIVERetail is in scope. Sales receipts run through the same system; fiscal devices at points of sale were approved by Parliament in July 2026.
REAL-TIME
Certified Invoicing System (E-VAT)
E-reporting
The invoicing system is the reporting channel. Invoice and purchase data reach the GRA in real time, or within 24 hours when offline.
6 yrs
Archiving
Six years under the Revenue Administration Act 2016 s.27, and longer while a dispute, refund claim or investigation is open.
CONDITIONAL
Digital signature
No taxpayer certificate is needed, but every invoice carries a fiscal signature applied by the GRA-certified system before issue.
20%
Headline VAT rate — 15% plus NHIL and GETFund at 2.5% each, on a common base since January 2026
24 hours
The longest an invoice may go untransmitted while your system is offline
GHS 50,000
Penalty ceiling for invoicing outside the certified system, or three times the tax — a hundredfold rise in January 2026
01
Compliance timeline
Ghana's rollout ran about a year behind its published plan, and the plan is worth reading against what happened. The 2023 timetable had Phase 1 complete by June 2023, Phase 2 by December 2023 and every VAT-registered taxpayer onboarded by December 2024. Phase 1 actually onboarded in May 2024 and Phase 2 in September 2024; no GRA notice exists for any later phase. Act 1151 then made the question moot by imposing the duty on everyone at once.
2022
2022-10-01In effect
The E-VAT pilot goes live with about fifty large taxpayers
The GRA began piloting the Certified Invoicing System with roughly fifty large taxpayers. The published plan from this period had Phase 1 running to June 2023, Phase 2 to December 2023 and all VAT-registered taxpayers onboarded by December 2024. None of those dates was met.
2024
2024-05-21In effect
Phase 1 onboarding: six hundred VAT-registered taxpayers
The GRA called six hundred named VAT-registered taxpayers to mandatory onboarding meetings in Accra. This is the phase the 2023 plan had scheduled for March to June 2023; it happened roughly a year late.
2024
2024-09-05In effect
Phase 2 onboarding: a further two thousand taxpayers
A further two thousand VAT-registered taxpayers were named for onboarding across seven Accra tax offices. The GRA described the purpose as real-time monitoring of VAT transactions. No GRA notice was issued for any later phase.
2026
2026-01-01In effect
Act 1151 makes certified-invoicing a general duty on every taxable person
The Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151) replaced Act 870 and, at section 43(2), requires every taxable person to issue tax invoices through a Certified Invoicing System integrated with the Commissioner-General's. The obligation stopped being a phased programme aimed at named taxpayers. The same date abolished the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy, took the headline rate to 20%, raised the goods registration threshold to GHS 750,000, removed the threshold for services entirely, abolished the VAT Flat Rate Scheme, and raised the invoicing penalty ceiling a hundredfold.
2026
2026-07-28In effect
Parliament approves the fiscal electronic device rollout
Parliament approved a multi-year expenditure commitment for the Fiscal Electronic Device policy under Act 966, targeting forty thousand devices at retail points of sale. Reporting had the pilot concluding in August 2026 with deployment to follow. This is retail fiscalisation hardware rather than a change to the invoicing duty, which Act 1151 already made general.
02
File format & data specification
A certified invoicing system rather than a government portal. The taxpayer's own accredited software — or the GRA's free E-VAT application — runs a Virtual Sales Data Controller that stamps each transaction using a daily key issued by the GRA's Security Key Management Module, and forwards it to the Certified Invoicing Management System. Every invoice carries a QR code, an invoice signature, a verification engine identifier, encrypted data and a time stamp. No published register of accredited vendors could be found.
How an invoice is made, stamped and transmitted
Three ways inIntegrate your own ERP or POS by API; use the GRA's free E-VAT software as desktop, Android or web; or use accredited third-party software.
What stamps itA Virtual Sales Data Controller, using a daily key issued by the GRA's Security Key Management Module.
What the invoice must carryQR code, invoice signature, verification engine identifier, encrypted data and a time stamp.
When it must arriveReal time when online. Offline issuance is permitted, with transmission once connectivity returns and a 24-hour ceiling; the system stops functioning after a set period of failed transmission.
Sales receiptsPermitted for low-value, high-volume supplies, printed or sent by SMS or email. A receipt without the purchaser's full details does not support an input tax deduction.
03
Scope & transmission
Every taxable person, and the registration test is now two different tests. For goods, the threshold rose from GHS 200,000 to GHS 750,000 on 1 January 2026, with early triggers at GHS 62,500 in a month, GHS 187,500 over three and GHS 375,000 over six. For services there is no threshold at all: registration follows from commencing taxable activity, within thirty days. Non-resident suppliers of electronic services register on the same basis, with no revenue floor.
⚠️ The threshold is not one number, and the official notice says only half of it
Goods: GHS 750,000Raised from GHS 200,000 on 1 January 2026. Early triggers apply at GHS 62,500 in one month, GHS 187,500 over three months or GHS 375,000 over six.
Services: no threshold at allAct 1151 removed it. Registration follows from commencing taxable activity, within thirty days — whatever the turnover.
Why this catches peopleThe GRA's own December 2025 notice announces the goods threshold and does not mention services. A page that follows the official source alone will tell every consultant, freelancer and digital service provider in Ghana that they are below the threshold. There is no threshold for them to be below.
Non-residentsSuppliers of electronic and telecommunications services to Ghana register on the same basis, with no revenue floor, and fall within the same invoicing regime.
Clearance, or fiscalisation? The distinction changes what you build
What vendor trackers saySeveral describe Ghana as a clearance model in which the GRA returns a clearance number before an invoice is valid.
What the GRA's own documents describeA Virtual Sales Data Controller running on the taxpayer's side, stamping each invoice with a daily key issued by the GRA's key management module, and forwarding to the central system. Offline operation is expressly permitted for up to 24 hours.
Which is rightThe second. Architecturally this is fiscalisation of the kind Rwanda and Zambia run, not portal clearance of the kind Italy and Chile run. The accurate sentence is: the invoice must be signed by a GRA-certified system before issue, and the data must reach the GRA in real time or within 24 hours.
Why it matters commerciallyA clearance model makes the tax authority a synchronous dependency of every sale. A fiscalisation model does not. Scoping the first when you have the second buys resilience you do not need; scoping the second when you have the first is how a go-live fails.
04
Getting compliant
This is a live obligation with a real integration behind it, so the work is real. The order below reflects what actually blocks: knowing whether you are registered at all, then how you will stamp and transmit, then what happens when the connection drops.
Check which registration test applies to you
Goods and services are now tested differently. If you supply services of any kind, there is no threshold — you register within thirty days of commencing taxable activity. If you supply goods, the threshold is GHS 750,000 with earlier monthly and quarterly triggers.
Pick your route into the Certified Invoicing System
Three exist: integrate your own ERP or POS by API, adopt the GRA's free E-VAT software, or buy accredited third-party software. No published register of accredited vendors was found, so verify a vendor's standing with the GRA directly rather than taking a claim on trust.
Design for the connection dropping, because the rules assume it will
Offline issuance is permitted and the system keeps stamping for a period, but transmission must follow within 24 hours and E-VAT stops working after a set run of failed transmissions. Treat the offline window as an operating condition to be monitored, not an edge case.
Keep six years of records, and expect the retail layer to arrive
Retention is six years under the Revenue Administration Act, longer while a dispute or investigation is open, and the Commissioner-General has unrestricted access during business hours. Separately, Parliament approved forty thousand fiscal electronic devices for retail points of sale in July 2026; if you sell to consumers, that is the next thing to reach you.
05
Penalties & enforcement
The penalty ceiling for invoicing outside the certified system rose a hundredfold on 1 January 2026, from 500 currency points to 50,000, or three times the tax involved, whichever is higher. Enforcement is active rather than theoretical: GRA field operations in Accra in May 2026 sealed premises and made an arrest over selective receipt issuance.
Penalties, and how hard they moved
Invoicing outside the certified systemUp to 50,000 currency points, or three times the tax involved, whichever is higher. Also covers false invoices, tampering, and failure to integrate or reconnect.
The scale of the changeUnder the previous Act the ceiling was 500 currency points. Act 1151 raised it a hundredfold on 1 January 2026.
Failure to issue an invoice at allA fine of up to 100 penalty units, or imprisonment of up to six months.
Failure to registerNot less than three times the VAT on taxable supplies from when the duty arose, raised from twice.
Enforcement is realGRA field operations across Accra in May 2026 found selective receipt issuance and missing records; premises were sealed and an arrest was made.
🔍 What we could not confirm
The primary law itselfThe official texts of Act 1151 — both the Parliament copy and the GRA-hosted copy — and the GRA's January 2026 VAT guidelines are scanned images with no extractable text. Section-level quotations here rest on two legal-database transcriptions that agree with each other and with EY's and KPMG's summaries. Ghana is the first country on this site whose primary law we could not read.
Whether the later phases happenedNo GRA notice exists for Phase 3 or Phase 4. A vendor tracker reports around 4,000 taxpayers in 2025 and a 40,000 target for Q4 2025; May 2026 enforcement suggests coverage is still incomplete. Treat both as announced, not achieved.
The value of a currency pointGHS 50,000 for 50,000 currency points is consistent across Deloitte and a Ghanaian tax-law source, but we could not read the statutory interpretation section that defines it.
Any register of accredited vendorsThe guidelines refer to authorised third-party software and Commissioner-General approval, but no published list was found.
The commencement instrumentAct 1151 reportedly commences on a date fixed by executive instrument. The GRA states 1 January 2026, which is authoritative in practice, but the instrument itself was not located.
06
Related jurisdictions — Middle East / Africa
Other countries in the same region, ordered by their next dated milestone. Each links to a full briefing.