Country Senior Partner, PWC Ghana, Vish Ahsiagbor, has warned against businesses evading taxes.

According to him, rather than evading taxes and getting into trouble with the law, businesses should instead plan their procedures to take advantage of tax exemptions and other opportunities under the law to avoid taxes.

He noted that this must be done carefully to avoid entering the territory of tax evasion as tax evasion could lead to serious sanctions.

“Put simply tax evasion is illegal. Right, the law is the law and whether to jail or whether you’re penalized some other way, tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance on the other hand is not illegal.

“So if you’re avoiding taxes through legitimate tax planning procedures, so if you plan your business in such a way that you take advantage of certain exemptions or certain allowances or certain provisions in the law that allows you to have a more favourable tax position, there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But that takes tax planning, and you do not cross the line, you do not do things that are illegal because then you get into the area of tax evasion,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition.