Tag: Statutory requirements
Ghana vs Unilever Ghana Limited, July 2023, High Court of Ghana, Case no. CM/TAX/0450/2021
Unilever Ghana Limited (UKL) filed an appeal with the High Court against an assessment of additional taxabel income issued by the tax authorities in 2019 on the following grounds. a) That the Respondent did not use a transfer pricing method as required by the Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2012 (LI 2188) in examining the Appellant Transfer Pricing Returns. b) That the Respondent misinterpreted, misunderstood and misapplied the OECD Transfer Pricing guidelines to arrive at a liability of Six Million, Two Hundred and Thirty-Six Thousand, Two Hundred Ghana Cedis (GHq:6,236,200.00) on the Advertising, Marketing and Promotion expenses incurred by the Appellant. c) That had the Respondent properly applied the OECD guidelines, the Appellant would not have been liable to pay tax on the Advertising, Marketing and promotion expenses. Judgment of the Court The High Court dismissed the appeal due to lack of statutory jurisdiction. “…I do not need to go further in this judgment than to dismiss the appeal on the grounds that the order granting leave to the Appellant to appeal against the objection decision was void. Therefore, the appeal has not properly invoked the jurisdiction of this court for the merits to be considered. The effect, is that the Appeal filed on 17th March, 2021 fails and same is dismissed. Consequently, the Respondent objection decision dated 19th September 2019 will continue to stand.” ...