Title: The determinants of tax revenue growth of an emerging economy - the case of Ghana

Authors: John Kwaku Amoh; Philip Kofi Adom

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Faculty of Accounting and Finance, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Ghana ' Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Accounting and Finance, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Ghana

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of tax revenue determinants on Ghana's tax revenue growth. The results specify significant determinants of tax revenue growth as foreign direct investment (FDI), manufacturing value added, services value added, external debt stocks and government consumption expenditure. The estimated tax revenues were found to be greater than the actual tax revenue figures resulting in tax revenue gaps averaging 10.27% of GDP annually. The study is a premier attempt to adopt econometric techniques to examine the effect of determinants of tax revenue on tax revenue growth. The study contributes to literature by developing a trajectory of tax revenue generation framework. The study provides a justification for the curtailment of the multiplicity of taxes with its inimical effects on tax revenue growth. We posit that to drive tax revenues to ensure the realisation of SDGs, tax policy should focus on significant tax revenue triggering determinants.

Keywords: tax revenue; determinants; multiplicity of taxes; sustainable development goals; SDGs; economic growth; Ghana; emerging; autoregressive distributed lag; ARDL; model; economics; accounting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEA.2017.092280

International Journal of Economics and Accounting, 2017 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.337 - 353

Received: 28 Sep 2017
Accepted: 07 Mar 2018
Published online: 12 Jun 2018 *

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