How does the Electronic Transfer Levy Act (E-Levy) affect your Paystack business?

What is the Electronic Transfer Levy Act?

The Electronic Transfer Levy Act (e-levy) is a new law passed by the Ghanaian government which imposes a levy of 1% on electronic transactions. 

What does it mean for my business?

There are 3 ways the e-levy charge will affect your business;

1. When your customer makes a payment to you that is above GHS 100 either via mobile money or their local bank card, they will be charged 1% of the amount as e-levy. You will not be charged at this point.
2. When you make a transfer from your Paystack balance to a customer for an amount above GHS 100, we will charge you 1% of the amount you’re transferring which will be remitted to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). This charge will be deducted from your Paystack balance.
3. When you receive a payout above GHS 100, we will deduct 1% of the amount on behalf of the GRA and remit the difference to you.

Are there any exceptions?

Under the law, payments made to businesses or individuals ("specified merchant payments") will not be subject to the e-levy as long as the business or individual is registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and is in good standing with all the applicable tax requirements.

Please upload your valid Ghana Card if you run a Starter Business or your Tax Identification Number (TIN) if you’re a Registered Business.

A valid Ghana card or Tax Identification Number (TIN) will be the primary method for verifying your registration with the Ghana Revenue Authority. 

If you’ve done this before, there is no need to upload it all over again.

You can follow the steps below to upload your information or confirm if you’ve previously uploaded these documents on your Paystack dashboard:

• Log in to your Paystack dashboard
• Go to the compliance page
• Click edit in the Owner or Documents section and upload your documents

For more help on this, kindly check out this article on how to update your account information.

What happens after I upload the requested documents?

Once you upload the requested information, each payment made to and from your business will be verified against your tax compliance status with the GRA. If your e-levy exemption status is validated by the GRA, payments from your customers to your business will not attract the e-levy.

What happens if I don’t do anything?

Without uploading these documents, all payments to and from your Paystack business will continue to attract the e-levy.

The Electronic Transfer Levy Act was recently passed and is still developing so we’ll update this article if there are any changes or additional requirements. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to send us an email at support@paystack.com or send us a message from the support widget at the bottom right of your Paystack dashboard.