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Tag: FIRS

  • FIRS generates N12.6trn revenue in 3 years

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it generated N12.62 trillion revenue from tax in the last three years.

    FIRS said this in a document on its achievements, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by the Head, Communications and Servicom Department of the Service, Mr. Wahab Gbadamosi in Abuja. The breakdown of the amount showed that N3.3 trillion was generated in 2016, N4.02 trillion in 2017 and N5.32 trillion was realised in 2018, making it the highest revenue generated in the last three years.

    According to the document, the FIRS, under the leadership of Babatunde Fowler, designed initiatives to ensure a robust tax administration that is beneficial to all stakeholders.

    The organisation said non-oil tax revenue increased to N2.149 trillion in 2016, N2.5 trillion in 2017 and N2.852 trillion in 2018. The document quoted Fowler as saying: “The achievements mentioned above also demonstrates the diversification of the Nigerian economy by the Federal Government. “This does not mean that we have left behind the oil tax revenue.

    It grew from N1.15 trillion in 2016 to N1.52 trillion in 2017 and N2.52 trillion in 2018. Nonoil tax revenue is still over in excess of the oil tax revenue. “We also do collect four per cent in terms of cost of collection, but only for non-oil revenue collected. On oil revenue collection, we do not get any commission and we have been able to make sure that our services are more efficient and convenient to taxpayers.

    “This has brought about a considerable reduction in the cost of collection of actual taxes. “In 2016, it was 2.6 per cent, 2017, 2.49 per cent and 2018, 2.14 per cent, meaning that our actual cost of collection is heading downwards based on the efficiency and technology that we are deploying to tax collection. “Some of the ICT initiatives that we have continued to build on are the e-payment channels which makes it convenient and easy to pay taxes anywhere in the world and to also download receipts of payment from any point one so desires,” he said.

  • FIRS generates N23bn unpaid taxes from corporate firms

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has generated over N23 billion in unpaid taxes from the recently suspended substitution exercise on corporate bank accounts, which was marked by the imposition of restriction on the accounts of tax-defaulting organisations.

    This was disclosed in Lagos on Thursday by Mr. Babatunde Fowler, the FIRS Chairman.

    The FIRS boss made the disclosure at the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Interactive Forum on Tax Matters.

    Fowler, who was guest speaker at the event, which held at the MAN House in Ikeja, explained that the focus of exercise were 3,000 companies deducting Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) on behalf of the Federal Government without remitting such.

    The companies, he said, had no tax identification and therefore could not remit the deducted taxes to government, making them treat such deductions as part of their cash flow.

    Fowler stated that the suspension of the exercise for 30 days, announced last weekend, was occasioned by the deluge of corporate taxpayers visiting FIRS offices to regularize their tax affairs and make payments, a situation that stretched the Service administratively, as it could not lift the lien on their accounts as quickly as it wished.

    Thus, the FIRS directed banks to lift restrictions on such accounts to allow affected tax companies regularize their tax status within 30 days and begin to make arrangements for the liquidation of their tax liabilities.

    According to the FIRS Chairman, the Service’s decision to place lien on accounts of businesses, corporate organisations and partnerships with an annual banking turnover in excess of N1billion, but without tax identification, was announced at a stakeholders’ meeting last September.

    “Our position was that if you charge VAT, which is not your money; or deduct Withholding Tax from vendors and you have no tax identification, you cannot even pay tax to the FIRS because you can’t pay without tax identification. So these operators were defrauding the society and the nation by charging consumers VAT, by deducting Withholding Tax and not remitting on behalf of other taxpayers.

    ”We had over 3,000 of such and we said if they do not come forward, we’d follow the law and do what they call substitution. Now, what the Act actually says is that the banks should deduct the amount of taxes from accounts. We, however, told the banks not to deduct the amounts, but put a lien on those accounts and let the taxpayers come forward. And till date, over N23billion has been paid on those accounts,” he said.

    Fowler added that the FIRS also noticed that operators that had banking turnover of between N100 million and N1 billion were equally guilty.

    The FIRS, he disclosed, received information from banks that there are 59,000 of such operators, who are without tax identification and have not been making payments to the Federation Account.

    Fowler stated that the decision to place restrictions on accounts was taken to protect taxpayers, who had Withholding Tax deducted from their contracts, and consumers, who paid unremitted VAT.

    He stated that 85 per cent of VAT goes to the states, which need them for salaries and other obligations.

    He equally stated that during the implementation of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), it was discovered that 50 per cent of the N96 billion tax debt was related to VAT.

    Responding to MAN President, Engr. Mansur Ahmed’s plea that the FIRS should expand the tax net and not the tax burden, Fowler said the restrictions placed on corporate accounts have helped achieve the former.

    In addition, he disclosed that in the last 18 months, the FIRS has added over 1.2 million business accounts to the tax net and under the Joint Tax Board, which he chairs, over 1 million individual accounts have been added.

    The FIRS Chairman, however, admitted that the Service made some administrative errors, which made banks place restrictions on accounts of a few companies with tax identification.

    This, he explained, arose from wrong information from the banks. But restrictions on such, he added, were lifted within 24 hours in addition to the tendering of formal apology to those impacted.

  • FIRS hits N5.3trn revenue collection, targets N8trn in 2019

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, re-wrote Nigeria’s tax collection history in 2018, when it announced that it has collected a total of N5. 320 trillion.

    Tunde Fowler, Executive Chairman, FIRS, who made the announcement in Lagos today at a retreat: “Parliamentary Support for Effective Taxation of the Digital Economy” said it is targeting N8 trillion for 2019.

    The N5.320 trillion collection is the highest revenue ever generated by FIRS in history. The highest in FIRS was N5.07 trillion generated in 2012.

    FIRS’ generation of N5.3 trillion is significant as it was at a period when oil prices averaged $70 per barrel. Oil price was at an average of $100 to $120 per barrel between 2010 and 2013. Non-Oil component of the N5.320 trillion is N2.467 trillion (53.62 per cent), while oil element of the collection is N2.852 trillion (46.38 per cent. From audit alone, FIRS collected N212,792 billion from 2278 cases with a huge reduction in audit circle.

    Said Tunde Fowler: “While we have been steadily increasing revenue collection over the years, our cost of collection has actually been going down. In 2016 we collected N3,307 trillion, in 2017 we collected N4,027 trillion and in 2018 we collected N5,320 trillion.

    Meanwhile, the cost of collection as a percentage of actual taxes collected has been reducing; in 2016 it was 2.6%, in 2017 it was 2.49% while in 2018 it was 2.14%.” “The Service has been making tremendous efforts in also increasing the amount of non-oil revenue it collects. Non-oil collection has contributed 64.99% in 2016, in 2017 it contributed 62.25% and in 2018 it contributed 53.62%.

    This represents the government’s focus on increasing non-oil sources of revenue and the diversification of the Nigerian economy. Fowler reiterated the fact that only companies that made a profit are obliged to pay taxes. According to him, if a company is situated in Nigeria it is only fair that it pays its fair share of tax for the benefit of all Nigerians. The Executive Chairman also stated that various initiatives were implemented by FIRS to enhance tax administration and make taxation as easy as possible.

    FIRS deployed ICT initiatives that enable a taxpayer to pay taxes from anywhere in the world, at any time. With the e-payment channel one can pay taxes with the click of a button and one can also download their receipts. Other e-Services are the e-Registration, e-Filing, -Stamp Duty and e-Tax Clearance Certificate. “Taxpayers can now also choose the tax office where they would like to conduct their tax transactions.

    Before now, if one was registered with a particular tax office, one had to conduct all of their tax transactions in that office. However, to make it more convenient for the taxpayer, they can now choose which ever office they wish to conduct their transactions with. He noted that Nigerian taxpayers are embracing the modern way of tax collection, introduced by the FIRS through the 6-e Solutions. Said Fowler: We are automating the collection of Value Added Tax, VAT in key sectors which will facilitate reduction in compliance cost in the long term. We are doing System to system integration between banks and FIRS.

    And I am happy to announce to you that we had a 31% increase year on year in VAT collection in the banks that have gone live between Jan 2017- Dec 2018 and collected 25bn so far “Amongst others, there is also the Government Information Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), which links FIRS to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation OAGF for real-time exchange of information and data. We are also automating the payment of VAT by states through the State Offices of Accountant General Platform (SAG).

    This will ensure that we automate and deduct at source and remittance of VAT and WHT from State governments contract payments directly to FIRS’s account and so far, collected 13bn.

    He noted that taxpayers that requested for and processed their Tax Clearance Certificate, TCC through tcc.firs.gov.ng, from the comfort of their homes. “Tax clearance on the platform grew from 9,574 – 59,350 within a year of introducing the platform.

  • Tax evasion: FIRS threatens to take over 30 defaulting companies

    The Federal Government has said it will take over 30 properties linked to companies that have not been paying taxes.

    The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Babatunde Fowler, stated that out of the 2,000 properties of corporate entities identified early this year that were not paying taxes, 561 of them had come forward to make payments.

    Fowler said 116 companies claimed not to own any of the properties, adding that 30 of them had actually written to the FIRS that the properties in question did not belong to them.

    He said based on the law, the properties would be taken over by the government.

    He said, “We have certain private organisations that own properties in Nigeria and have not been paying any taxes.

    “So we took a review of all properties and we have about 2,000 that were under corporate ownership and those corporate entities have not paid any tax.

    “By law, where a company has not filed or paid any taxes, we have to use estimated assessment based on turnover.

    “Out of the 2,000, about 569 have come forward to pay taxes. We have done an assessment of N8bn, while the others have asked for payment by instalment.

    “Also, 116 claimed not to own those properties. 30 of them have put it in writing claiming that they do not own the properties in question.

    “We have written accordingly to the Ministry of Finance and we believe that the government will take those properties over in line with the law.”

    He spoke in Abuja during a media briefing with the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

    Also present at the briefing were the Director-General, Debt Management Office, Mrs Patience Oniha; the acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Mary Uduk; the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Alli; and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Dutse.

    The Minister of Finance, Ahmed, said between May 29, 2015, and December this year, the Federal Government had paid over N6.11tn to settle inherited debts and liabilities to states, contractors, and joint venture partners, among others.

    She noted that the inherited debts were paid despite the revenue shortfall experienced by the Federal Government within the last three years.

    Giving a breakdown of the amount paid, the finance minister said that $5.4bn (about N1.65tn) was used to pay state governments for the refund of excess deductions made from the Paris Club debt, while $6.8bn (about N2.07tn) was used to settle Joint Venture Cash Call obligations.

    She also said that contractors/Export Expansion Grants debt totalling N1.9tn had been settled, adding that about N488bn spent by state governments on road projects had also been paid.

    In addition, she said that as part of the Federal Government’s efforts to ensure all pensioners get their entitlements, the ministry had released N54bn to settle outstanding pension arrears in 2014, 2015 and 2016, as well as paid pension claims up to March 2017.

    She also said that over N571m had been paid as gratuity to 175 Biafra war-affected retired police officers.

    In the area of expenditure performance, the finance minister said that in 2018, despite the revenue shortfall, the Federal Government had been able to pay salaries and fully service its debts obligations.

    She said as of December 21, the ministry had released overhead funding for seven months, while N995bn had been released for capital projects

    She expressed optimism that the ministry would perform better during the rest of the budget year by driving revenue generation up to improve the fiscal space for spending.

    To increase revenue, she said the Federal Government would be implementing more public financial management reforms.

    She said, “To take advantage of innovative technologies, we plan to leverage data, technological tools and platforms to foster collaboration, grow the revenue base and improve collections.

    “Given the span of stakeholders that form our port community and for the sake of improving ease of doing business, we plan to deploy a national single window/trade platform that we expect to enhance customs collections to about 90 per cent over a few years.

    “We will also improve collaboration between our revenue collection agencies including the Nigeria Customs Services, the FIRS and other trade partners to share information and intelligence that will help improve revenue and make collections more efficient.

    “Under my tenure as the Finance Minister, I intend to continue championing such digitalisation transformation initiatives that have proven to be a good way forward for our revenue generation drive.”

    When asked about some of the taxes that would be affected by the planned increase in tax rate, the minister said that the government would from next year begin the implementation of taxes on luxury items.

    She said, “We are exploring the way to increase taxes as well as reduce taxes in some sectors. For Small and Medium Enterprises, what will happen is to reduce taxes. But there are some special taxes that we will be looking at imposing.

    “For example, luxury taxes. If you have a private jet, we will be taxing you specially for that. If you have a yacht, we will be charging you for that and also in terms of excise duties, there are also some new areas where excise duties will be introduced.

    “We haven’t got all the approvals but one of the major areas might be that of carbonated drinks produced in the country.”

     

  • Bank challenges N29. 2m VAT imposed by FIRS

    An Abuja-based Mortgage Bank, Infinity Trust Mortgages Bank PLC, on Wednesday sued the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in a Tax Appeal Tribunal sitting in Abuja, for imposing N29. 2 million remittance on Value Added Tax (VAT) with penalty and interest on it.

    The appellant sought the order of the tribunal for the annulment of the FIRS’s assessment or demand notice dated May 17 and July 6, served on it with penalty at 10 per cent and interest at 15 per cent.

    Responding, FIRS stated that the letter of reviewed and audited accounts were valid and issued in accordance with the relevant provisions of the law.

    FIRS sought the tribunal to declare that the VAT demand served on the Bank was valid and made in accordance with the law.

    The respondent further sought for a declaration that the VATable transaction by the appellant outside the main objectives of its business, is liable to VAT.

    FIRS further sought for an order compelling the appellant to pay to the respondent the sum of N29. 2 million being its VAT liability for the period of 2015 to 2016 as contained in the demand letter.

    At the resumed sitting on Wednesday, Mr Olumide Olujimi, counsel for the appellant informed the court that the matter was coming up for the first time and the witness they sought to bring was not present.

    He promised that by the next adjourned date their witness would be present and prayed for an adjournment.

    Mrs Beatrice Olaribijgbe- Oyinbo, counsel for FIRS informed the tribunal that they have filed their reply to the appeal since Nov. 28.

    The tribunal chaired by Mrs Alice Iriogbe adjourned the matter until Jan. 23, 2019 for hearing.

    NAN

  • FIRS generates N4.3trn tax revenue from Jan to Oct – Fowler

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Friday said it generated N4.3 trillion as tax revenue between January and October this year.

    FIRS Executive Chairman, Babatunde Fowler, disclosed this during the “Federal Inland Revenue Service Special Day” at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair held at Tafawa Balewa Square.

    Represented by Mrs Angel Fadahunsi, FIRS South West Head, Federal Engagement and Enlightenment Tax Team, Fowler expressed optimism that the service would meet up with its 2018 revenue target before the end of the year.

    “I am pleased to inform you today that the FIRS has recorded remarkable performance in terms of revenue collection this year.

    “For instance, as at October 31st, our collection was N4.3 trillion and we believe we have the potential to meet our assigned target at the end of the year.

    “We realised that this performance would not have been possible but for the present administration’s policy of expanding the nation’s tax base and blocking revenue leakages,” he said.

    Fowler said that the agency focused its attention on businesses with over a billion naira in annual turnover without any record of commensurate payment of tax obligations to boost its revenue performance.

    He noted that about 6000 of such companies had been identified and contacted by the service leveraging on various data sources.

    ” We will continue to focus on recovering all such revenues due to the Federal Government and the people of Nigeria.

    ” We encourage the business community and all well-meaning citizens to continue to partner with us to ensure that defaulters are traced and face the consequences while compliant businesses receive all the support they require,” he said.

    Fowler said the agency was working assiduously in ensuring that it aligned with all efforts to grow national revenue from taxation while easing the inherent administrative burdens.

    “We place emphasis on human resources as one of several tools to achieve our aim of expanding the tax net.

    ” This is why we recently recruited young Nigerians to support our bid to effectively provide adequate services to all the nooks and crannies of the country,” Fowler said.

    The FIRS boss said the service had undertaken some actions to further reduce the burden of taxation, including the review and approval of National Tax Policy by the Federal Executive Council.

    “This provides strategic direction on tax administration and national focus.

    “Another thing is working under the auspices of the Joint Tax Board, we continue to advocate for the simplification, harmonization and streamlining of processes, levies and taxes at the state and local government levels,” he said.

    Earlier, Babatunde Ruwase, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), urged FIRS to expedite action to address issues of multiple taxes toward easing the business environment.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Lagos International Trade Fair, organised by LCCI, started on Nov.2 and will end on Nov 11.

    NAN

  • FIRS threatens to hand over 114 debtor companies to AGF

    The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) has uncovered 114 companies that claimed that they are not aware of lands allocated to them.
    However, the FIRS has confirmed from the Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) that these lands were actually allocated to these companies and the Service has vowed to hand over these false claims to the Attorney General of the Federation for further action on the controversial lands.
    These disclosure was made by the Executive Chairman of the FIRS Mr. Tunde Fowler at the African Union high level panel on illicit financial flows from Africa which held in Abuja on Thursday.
    According to Fowler, “114 Companies claimed they were unaware of land allocated to them but AGIS has confirmed the ownership for all the cases referred to them and we will soon hand these cases over to the Attorney General on the way forward.”
    Highlighting the benefits of curbing Illicit Financial Flows in Nigeria in particular, Fowler revealed that the “total tax debt recovered From January 2017 to 31st August 2018 is N3,631,949,050, broken down as From Nov 2016 – Dec 2017 Total collected – N1.9 Billion From Jan 2018 – Date N1.731 Billion.”
    With regards to the Issuance of tax notification obligation to Company Income Tax (CIT) Non-Compliant Companies that own properties and Identified Non-Filers for Abuja, Fowler stated that it issued 2,672 Demand Notices; 653 those Now Filing and N2.983 Billion as total payments for Demand Notices for Abuja Properties
    Fowler identified the Component of Illicit Financial Flows in Nigeria to include: Commercial Activities which are illegal flows from business activities that leads to hiding wealth, evading or aggressively avoiding tax, and dodging customs duties and domestic levies; Criminal activities: IFFs are often driven by criminal activities with the purpose of keeping the transactions from the view of law enforcement agencies or revenue authorities; Corruption: Money acquired through bribery and abuse of office by public officials are enormous and can be used to further develop different projects, and also increase taxation revenue collection.
    Other are, nature of IFF in Nigeria Payments of expatriates staff emolument and remuneration and failure to declare for personal income tax purposes such emoluments to the relevant tax authorities in Nigeria; Laundering of funds (often sourced illegally) through Real Estates transactions to acquire property in choice locations outside Nigeria; Illegal transfer of money out of Nigeria, via unapproved channels; Mispricing of goods and services transferred between interrelated Nigeria based companies (e.g. MNEs) and Individuals to offshore based entities and individuals; Profit Shifting – for instance through excessive interest payments on foreign and locally sourced loans and Mis-invoicing of imports and exports.
    Earlier, Mr Thabo Mbeki, former South African President and Chairman, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s High Level Panel on IFF said that Africa looses about $80 billion annually through IFFs.
    Mbeki, who is also a former South African President, said the huge sums came from proceeds of commercial transactions through multinational companies, criminal activities and corruption.
    According to him, illicit financial flow had posed developmental challenges on the continent, in terms of draining hard currency reserve, reduced tax collection, deepening income gap, depleting investment and weakened governance.
    He harped on the need to strengthen institutions like the Revenue Service Agencies, Customs Services and the legislation, to enable them tackle better, incidences of money laundering as well as other forms of IFFs.
    Meanwhile the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said that IFFs have robbed Africa of the wealth and resources needed to invest in infrastructure, education, hospitals, electricity and many other necessities for sustainable and inclusive economic development.
    Ahmed was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse.
    “The quest for Africa’s economic development will be accelerated if funds illegally acquired, stolen and hidden abroad by illicit finance flow perpetrators are repatriated.
    “Our development will no doubt receive a leap if Multinational Corporations desist from illicit activities of aggressive transfer pricing, base erosion, profit shifting and trade mispricing.
    “As indicated in the 2015 High Level Panel Report, the challenge of combatting IFFs is particularly pronounced in countries such as Nigeria, due to the dominance of the extractive industries in the economy.
    “In this regard, the work of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), which I used to head, as well as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, whose operations the Ministry of Finance oversees, are relevant,” she said.
    Ahmed also said that to address IFFs within the context of taxation, the FIRS, several years ago, introduced Transfer Pricing Regulations to curb the incidence of aggressive transfer pricing practices and enthrone the “Arms-length” Principle in the cross-border trade practices of multinational corporations, as well as indigenous firms.
    In addition, she said that the Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) initiative which ended in June 2018, was a tax amnesty programme aimed at raising tax revenues, regularizing the tax status of citizens and bringing concealed tax assets into the national tax base.
    “Furthermore, the Federal Government is collaborating with several countries in terms of sharing information on Nigerians who own properties and bank accounts abroad.
    ” We also run a programme for the Automatic Exchange of Tax Information with the United Kingdom.
    “In addition, we have signed agreements on the Multilateral Competent Authority on the Common Reporting Standard which is a platform for exchange of financial accounts information.
    “This will come into effect as soon as the legal framework is finalized,” she said.
    Ahmed also informed the panel that in July 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Bill into law.
    She said that the NFIU would ensure autonomous and independent agency monitoring of cross-border financial flows with a view to identifying and intercepting suspicious transfers.
    The Unit is also empowered to fight the funding of criminal activities, money laundering and terrorism through the international and domestic financial system.
    “To aid us in our efforts, it will be appreciated if the HLP will share its experiences in domesticating international best practices in the key sectors of our economy with respect to IFFs.
    “In this regard, Nigeria stands to gain much from initiatives such as the European Union’s country-by-country reporting (CbCR) transparency measures. By requiring companies that are of a particular size or operate in certain industries to publish operational and tax data for each country in which they do business.
    “Governments such as ours would be better equipped to check the incidence of aggressive tax-planning strategies, adopt more targeted and risk-based tax audits, and persuade large multinational corporations to voluntarily reduce the magnitude of their tax avoidance,” she said.
    Also, the Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami said that Nigeria had put in place institutions, legislations and technology expertise to minimize IFFs in the country.
    “We established the EFCC, ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau, Code of Conduct Tribunal and the Financial Intelligence Unit, and backed them with laws, to ensure that Nigeria wins the fight against corruption and IFFs.
    “We have also deployed technology in this fight. For example, we have deployed BVN in the banking sector, to identify the real owners of bank accounts.
    “Also, the TSA and the IPPIS were deployed to ensure that the Federal Government resources are prudently managed,” he said.

  • UPDATED: FIRS seals Oba Otudeko’s offices over tax default

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Wednesday sealed the premises of Oba Otudeko’s head office located in Victoria Island, Lagos, over failure to fulfill tax obligations.

    The FIRS team sealed Broadview Engineering Limited, Pivot Engineering Limited among others owned by the business magnate.

    Pivot Engineering Limited, an Ikeja-based power engineering subsidiary of the Honeywell Group was said to have been in tax default to the tune of N610 million.

    The FIRS team also sealed the premises of UTC Nigeria Plc (N278 million), John Holt Nigeria Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading assembly conglomerate and trading companies (N33 million).

    The others are HITV Limited, Sweet Sensation Confectionery Limited (N156 million), Reliance Telecommunications Limited (N593 million) and Entertainment Highway Limited (N196 million).

    The Chief Executive officers (CEOs) of the foreclosed companies were also arrested.

    Their arrest was the outcome an enforcement drive by the FIRS to recover arrears of taxes accruing to the Federal Government from Company Income Tax (CIT), Education Tax (EDT), Withholding Tax (WHT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) still outstanding against various companies.

    The FIRS taskforce also went to HITV Limited and Entertainment Highway Limited where they discovered the premises had been sealed by a certain back following a court order.

    Similarly, the premises of Reliance Communication was sealed and it was gathered that it was on the instructions of its company’s chairman, Anil Ambani.

    The seal off action would have been after the FIRS must have carried out a mandatory assessment of what these companies owed either by assessing their tax liabilities after obtaining financial records, or they pass a Best of Judgement Assessment (BOJ).

     

     

     

  • FIRS generates N2.52 trillion from taxes in 6 month

    FIRS generates N2.52 trillion from taxes in 6 month

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, says it realised N2, 529,615,174,601.25 from various taxes between January and June 2018.

    The amount shows that the Service had realized 75% of its total target for the year, which is an improvement over what was realized at the corresponding period in 2017.

    A report on the revenue performance by the Agency, submitted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, confirmed that the N2,529,615,174,601.25 has an increase of N746,107,323,247.26, representing 42%, when compared to the N1,783,507,851,353.99 total tax revenue realized in the corresponding period in 2017.

    An analysis of the total amount shows that N1,168,627,365,306.67 was collected as Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) as against N636,170,585,753.57, resulting in a variance of N532,456,779,553.10.

    From the Company Income Tax (CIT), the FIRS realized a total of N680,093,730,362.25, which was N128,151,996,465.68 more than the N551,941,733,896.57 in the previous year.

    The Value Added Tax (VAT) yielded a total of N536,525,540,228.39 in the period under review, which was N68,841,756,240.06 more than the N467,683,783,988.33 realized in 2017.

    The Education Tax brought in N77,191,051,329.11 compared to the N58,868,372,910.79 in 2017, showing an increase of N18,322,678,418.32

    The revenue from Stamp Duties was N7,492,592,658.35, which was N2,346,472,953.70 higher than what was realized in 2017 from Stamp Duties which was a total of N5,146,119,704.65.

    The FIRS said it realized N1,006,543,151.07 from capital Gains Tax , an analysis of which shows that the amount was N64,916,270.95 more than the N 941,626,880.12 in 2017.

    From NITDEF, a total of N9,249,618,573.91 was realized, resulting in an increase of N736,357,883.29 when compared to the total of N8,513,260,690.62 in 2017.

    The Consolidated Tax Revenue for January to June 2018 was 49,428,732,991.50; an amount that was higher than the N54,242,367,529.34 by a total of N4,813,634,537.84.

    With continuous revenue generation strategies, the FIRS expressed optimism that its effort will have a significant outcome, particularly in increasing revenue for 2018.

  • Saraki calls for review of Nigeria’s tax laws

    The President of the Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has called for the urgent review of the nation’s tax laws, to achieve a more efficient and productive tax regime.

    Saraki gave the advice on Wednesday while inaugurating the Technical Committee on Reforming Nigeria’s Tax System at the National Assembly, Abuja.

    He said the Federal Government’s target should not only be that of increased revenue, but how to evolve a tax system that would be efficient.

    According to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sanni Onogu, Saraki said Nigeria should adopt a productive tax system, to grow her economy.

    He also lamented the existing duplications in the current tax regime and called on the committee to harmonise the various tax instruments in the country.

    “It is not just to increase revenue alone; I think it is also to address how efficient and the level of harmonisation of taxes across board, particularly as we operate a three tier system of government.

    “One of the difficulties or frustration you find from business people is where they have to pay similar taxes at the local, state and federal levels.

    “This at the long run makes business unproductive. I hope that at the end of the day you should have an approach that will bring in a system that is efficient.

    “A system that reduces all these barricades and the different challenges on the ease of doing business,” he said.

    He also called for the expansion of the technical committee to include major players in the private sector.

    According to him, “It is better to engage and get their input rather than giving them directives during the implementation of the expected reforms.”

    “We need to engage them rather than just giving them directives. I think there is need for the committee to expand its membership to include stakeholders from the private sector,” he stated.

    Leader of the Technical Committee and Director-General of the National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS), Prof. Ladi Hamalai, said the outcome of the committee’s assignment would ease payment of taxes.

    “The expected report and pieces of legislation from the work of this Technical Committee will harmonise the various disparate legislations.

    “It would also facilitate the ease of paying taxes in the country and at the same time, impact on the overall ease of doing business,’’ Hamalai said.

    Members of the committee include representatives of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

    Others are Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and state commissioners of finance.