Tax expenditures are losses in government revenue resulting from planned deviations from the regular tax system. In Ghana, Article 174 of the Constitution of 1992 covers tax expenditures, which are regulated by the Exemptions Act of 2022 (Act 1083). Tax expenditure information for Ghana has to be submitted yearly by the Minister of Finance to Parliament and quarterly by the Ghana Revenue Authority.

The Revenue Forgone Method, which also adheres to the ECOWAS Directive C/DIR.4/07/23, is what Ghana uses to calculate the TEs. The formula adopted is: Tax Expenditure = Benchmark Tax Liability – Actual Tax Liability. Data for the calculation is retrieved from two main systems: the GITMIS (Ghana Integrated Tax Management Information System) for domestic tax expenditures and ICUMS (Integrated Customs Management System) for import exemptions.

Tax expenditures are categorised into three buckets: Import TE (exemptions on goods entering Ghana), Domestic Indirect TE (including excise sliding scales and zero-rated goods), and Domestic Direct TE (sectoral incentives for agriculture, mining, export, free zones, etc.).