The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FIRS

  • Banks owe Fed Govt N83b

    Money Deposit Banks are owing the Federal Government N83billion in unremitted taxes. However, 23 out of the 24 banks have, so far, remitted N77billion to the government over the past five years.

    Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abudulmumin Jibrin, who gave the figures in an interactive session with officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), assured that the investigation should not arouse stir.

    He observed that the guidelines for the collection of the taxes were not specific, saying the issue would be addressed. “The Committee is inviting the Chief Executives of the 24 banks to appear before it next Monday but this should not ignite any kind of controversy.

    “We are not putting them under any investigation, except proven otherwise. But they are coming here for an interactive session. There is nothing sensitive with investigating banks, its just an exercise, and it will not have any negative effect on the economy.”

    In his presentation, Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Kabir Mashi, said though the commercial banks have remitted N77billion to the government, additional N83billion was being expected from the banks.

    He dispelled any insinuation of any wrong doing, saying, “FIRS has a signed collection agreement with the banks, where the conditions guiding the remittances are well spelt out.

    “On the information from the tax audit unit on companies’ taxes since 2006 till 2012, we have audited 23 banks, and through the audit, we have a total additional taxes of N83b. But so far, the total payment till date is N77b

  • Court orders NICON Insurance to pay FIRS N200m

    Court orders NICON Insurance to pay FIRS N200m

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has awarded more than N200 million against NICON Insurance and National Insurance Commission (NIC) in favour of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    The Presiding Judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, also granted the claims of the FIRS of 10 per cent interest from February 2008 to date and 10 per cent post judgment sum.

    According to the Deputy Director, Communication and Liaison Department, the Judge also awarded the cost of N50,000 each against NICON Insurance and NIC.

    The FIRS had through a Writ of Summons, signed by Idrissa Kogo of the Legal and Prosecution Department supported by 33-paragraph Affidavit deposed to by Omofoyewa Taofeek Laide, claimed N99, 917,061.80 against the defendants as a balance of its claims under the Staff Welfare Insurance Scheme with the NICON Insurance.

    The Service sought a 10 per cent interest per annum from February 2008 till judgment is entered and 60 per cent interest on the judgment sum until it is liquidated.

    Also, FIRS sought N100 million as general damages against the defendants for wrongfully holding onto the Service’s N99.9 million despite repeated demands for the said amount.

    The dispute between FIRS and NICON Insurance arose when FIRS noted that NICON was unable to meet its financial commitments to FIRS beginning from about 2007/2008.

    FIRS told the court it contributed a total of N220 million to the scheme— from staff entitlements and benefits, designed to mortgage the funds of the scheme for the benefit of FIRS contributing workforce.

    The scheme kicked off in 1997, when FIRS paid N10 million to NICON.

    At a reconciliation meeting between FIRS and NICON on February 27, N155, 417,061.80 million was established as NICON’s indebtedness to FIRS. NICON paid an installment of N23 million in March 2008 and another N15 million in May 2008. Between 2008 and December 2010, a total of N17. 5million was paid to FIRS, leaving a balance of N99, 917,061.80, that led to FIRS’ suit.

  • FIRS non-oil tax collection hits N5tr

    FIRS non-oil tax collection hits N5tr

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has generated over N5 trillion from non-oil tax revenue windows.

    FIRS Eastern Regional Co-ordinator, C. P. Igweh, disclosed this yesterday in a paper he presented at a one-day conference on ‘Tax Regulations and Socio-Economic Development in an Industrializing Nation.’ He said this amount was far beyond the N1trillion generated in 2004 before the FIRS Establishment Act, No. 13 of April, 2007.

    Igweh whose paper, entitled: “Industrialization of Nigerian Economy: The Role of FIRS as an apex tax Regulatory Agency,” said taxes were collected from company income tax, value added tax, education tax, personal income tax, petroleum profit tax, capital gains tax and national information technology development fund levy, amongst others.

    He said the goal of FIRS is to continually surpass the nation’s revenue target in all taxes and achieve a ratio of non-oil tax collection to non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of at least seven percent in the nearest future.

    In his own paper on ‘Tax Laws and Socio-Economic Development in Nigeria – Anambra State as a focal point”, Meshach Umenweke, an Associate Professor of Law and former Head, Department of International Law and Jurisprudence, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, identified multiplicity of taxes as a major constraint militating against the Nigerian tax regime, saying it makes tax assessment and collection very difficult.

    Umenweke, who spoke at the event organised by the Faculty of Law, Anambra State University (ANSU), Igbariam Campus, regretted that the people of the Southeast goe-political zone, were being subjected to various types of taxes in their various communities.

    He alledged that while their northern and western counterparts enjoy government funded projects as part of social services and infrastructural delivery, their Southeastern counterparts are made to pay for the execution of certain communal projects, like construction of roads and gutters, erosion control, water bore-holes, security levies for vigilante services and rural electrification, among others,

    Also in his own paper, entitled: “Examination of Contentious Provisions of the FIRS (Establishment) Act 2007 as Harbinger of Constitutional Crisis: a call for amendment,’ William Amechi Chukwuma, a Doctoral student in Law of Taxation at UNIZIK, Awka, urged various tiers of government to justify tax payers’ money, by giving them quality services which are commensurate to the taxes they paid.

    Chukwuma blamed the Federal Government for not abolishing sales tax throughout the federation when Value Added Tax (VAT) was introduced, because the perceived inequity in the VAT sharing formula has forced some states to introduce sales tax on certain goods and services.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Congestion looms at port over tax number

    Congestion looms at port over tax number

    • 50 containers, vehicles trapped

    Fresh crisis is looming at the Lagos ports over the introduction of Tax Identification Number (TIN) by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Customs.

    According to Customs, the provision of TIN is now a prerequisite for importers to clear goods from the seaport.

    Investigation showed that over 50 containers and several vehicles are now trapped in the port because the owners could not provide their TIN.

    Consignments belonging to an individual, who does not have the TIN, may be forfeited unless the authority addresses the issue.

    For instance, Mr Adelaja Oguntulu (70), whose son Goke sent him a vehicle from Germany, could not get the vehicle out of the port because he does not have TIN.

    The clearing agent, the septuagenerian alleged, told him that the document for his vehicle could not be processed because he does not have TIN.

    FIRS and the Customs, he said, would create congestion at the port if they continue to apply the TIN policy to individuals.

    Oguntulu said he retired over 10 years ago and has not received his gratuity from his employers. His children, he said, are responsible for his up-keep, yet the Customs want him who is not working to give them Tax Number.

    “Which tax number do they want me to give them? I am not working and do not receive salary from anybody or is it from the money sent to me from my children living abroad they want me to pay tax? I hope this people are not planning to send some of us to our early graves because they want to collect money by all means,” Oguntulu said.

    When The Nation called him on phone, the President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs agents (ANCLA), Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said every Nigerian above 18 years must have TIN to clear goods from the port.

    Shittu said Nigerians above 18 years can go to FIRS to obtain their TIN whether they paid tax in the past or not.

    The ANCLA boss also said once an individual has paid his tax to the Lagos State or Federal Governments, for instance, the TIN will be given to him to transact his business at the ports.

    He warned clearing agents to stop payment of duty for importers, as Customs will always ask for the TIN of the affected importer.

  • What befuddling tomfoolery is this now?!

    What befuddling tomfoolery is this now?!

    If the FIRS would pay such people a visit, find out their businesses, slap them with a tax so befitting no earthly tailor could match it, then we probably would become less befuddled or even be cured of our tomfoolery

    Tomfoolery, says my encyclopaedia, is silly behaviour; and befuddling, goes the same authority, means causing someone to be confused. To be honest, I am so confused by the silliness of Nigeria’s wise rulers and business class that I think it is time to bring out my bag of hows. How come that, according to news reports, some of Nigeria’s rulers and business men, have been able to donate more than N6 billion towards the building of a deanery for the president’s homeland church?! How possible was it for the president of my country to be looking on while those figures (money that is, not the people) were being thrown around and he was not in consternation as I am now?! Just how large can that deanery be that it would require that much money? And just how on earth am I going to explain this to my grandchildren, eh?!

    Truth is, anyone can do what they like with their money; it is after all, their money. When someone decides to put his/her money under his bed rather than take it to the bank, he is exercising his full rights over it. When s/he decides to give out every penny of the billions he owns, he is still exercising his full rights. Some businessman somewhere in the world was said to have one day become very sick of having so much money and seeing so many people with nothing to eat that he decided he had had enough. I would have liked to tell you that he then had the poor swept off the streets so that he would no longer have to look at them, but that would be my own story, not our man’s. Our man decided to wind up his business, he gave large chunks of his fortune away and used the remaining to start a food kitchen where the poor could come and eat and where he himself served.

    When an individual decides to write his/her birthday party invitation on the nation’s bank notes, s/he is exercising rights that are stolen, cause, as any idiot can tell you, the notes belong to the central bank while the rights to use it legally belong to the holder. I think I’ve reported once that some party girl somewhere in our south-west here once did just that. She decided to send out invitations for her twenty-first birthday on the nation’s highest currency then of fifty naira. Luckily for us all, the police quietly stepped in. We never did find out what happened to those notes. So, anyone who decides to give the president’s deanery any sou, s/he is freely using his/her rights to do so. But we object seriously because that right infringes on our collective sense of what is full and empty. It is not right that while two-thirds of the country is empty in stomach, money should be thrown over our heads by the full in stomach as if we don’t exist. It’s not right.

    Someone said the monies donated have been used to serve God. Truly, I cannot comment on this because it is only God who knows who is serving Him. I do know, however, that if the almighty had a say in the matter, he would ask that the president should just take what he needs for his deanery and send the remaining to others still struggling to erect their own church walls, like err, mine. But then, who is the almighty to say anything in matters like this? So, back to breaking our backs, folks, as we struggle on to raise the walls of our worship tents.

    One thing is clear. Those stupendous monies have come from people who have gained immensely from the president’s office. Don’t praise me. Saying this does not particularly make me a genius; I am only repeating what others have said because I am rather good at that. But seriously, I don’t care about anyone gaining from the office of the president. What gets my goat is this public show of gratitude. Why must these people show us so blatantly that they have got the president’s ear and we have not? Why must they rub it in that because we don’t have billions to dole out for any cause at all, we don’t get our photos taken with the president? Oh, how I hate these show-offs!

    Anyone who has studied the business clime of Nigeria knows for sure that, for good or bad, the federal government has managed to tie every venture in Nigeria around itself and itself around every venture. So, no one can breathe now without the government knowing about it. This of course translates to the fact that the government allows those that it loves to take in more gulps of air than others so that those ones will know how to be grateful in times of contribution so that they can be allowed to take in more gulps of air so that they can be eternally grateful so that … Get my drift? Then you’re doing better than me. I guess what I am trying to say is that launching times are often gratitude times; something you and I can never understand because it is too much like watching the ping-pong of table tennis. Your head is swivelling so much following the ball that you soon lose any idea of who is winning; you just know that if you stand there watching for too long, you will be the one losing.

    The trouble in all this, and this is where I suspect the people’s umbrage derives its strength, is that these gratitude times are ultimately tied to the people’s fortunes. What wealth the government doles out to the privileged few does not belong to it but The People who have given it to the government to hold in trust for it (the people that is, not the government). So, when large figures are flying around national news organs, The People’s heads threaten to burst and indignant exclamation marks escape from their mouths: ‘Whar a heck!; why were we not invited to this event?!’ The people know that even though they have not been partakers in the ping-pong of business and money, ultimately, they and their children will have to pay for it. They know that they are the ones losing because all the figures flying around are really theirs, and they have no idea where they are going (the figures, not the people).

    To me, the real culprit in all this is the tax office, or the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). In a good country, where there is adequate reverence for law and order, there would be some officers of FIRS who do not sleep but are perpetually on the lookout for anyone who wants to play the fool with the nation’s money. Their beady eyes would immediately alight on such a figure, note his/her name, place of abode, and times of playing the fool and to what tune. Then those fine gentlemen and women would pay such a one a visit, politely ask what line of business s/he was in to accrue such an amount and then literally slap him/her with a tax so befitting no earthly tailor could match it, no matter how close the person was to anyone. Honestly, that is how we can become less befuddled or even be cured of our tomfoolery in this country. In the absence of that, all the president’s beneficiaries continue to exercise their rights to be grateful citizens, even if at the expense of us all. They also continue to rake up enough goodwill to warrant greater cause for future gratitude world without end, Amen.

  • Experts fault FIRS on self-assessment form

    The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) has drawn the flaks over its decision to collect taxes before payers fill self-assessment forms.

    Experts advise tax payers to treat the FIRS’ notice with caution.

    Eben Akinyemi, Partner, at the transactions and tax advisory firm, Stransact Partners, said FIRS did not consider the 2011 Tax Administration (Self-Assessment) Regulations in its request.

    Akinyemi, who is also an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), said the regulator cited Section 55 of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA) 2004 (as amended) and demanded payment of taxes beginning from January 2013 and final payment to be made on or before June 30, 2013 for companies whose financial year end is after July 31, last year.

    “The FIRS relied on Section 61 of the FIRS Establishment Act (FIRS Act), to issue the 2011 Tax Administration (Self-Assessment) Regulations in December 2011. The Regulations made specific pronouncements on the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA), the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA), the Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA), and the Value Added Tax Act (VATA), among others.

    Section 77(5) states: “A company filing self-assessment shall pay the tax due within two months from the date of filing the assessment in one lump sum, or such number of monthly installments (not being more than six) as may be approved by the Board,” he said.

    Managing Consultant at WTS Nakyea & Adebiyi, Ali-Nakyea Abdallah, said: “The FIRS Board with the approval of the Minister can make regulations giving full effect to provisions in the Act and not to pass laws, which is the exclusive preserve of the Legislature. It is important to mention that tax is a creature of statute; thus tax imposition, collection, debt enforcement and management should all be backed by statute, otherwise they crumble as being arbitrary and biased.”

    Abdallah, who is also a lecturers at Ghana School of Law, said: “If the FIRS finds the six months too long a waiting period, the only remedy is to get the section amended. In Ghana, we had a similar six months waiting period till an amendment was effected to reduce it to four months after the end of the taxpayer’s accounting date.

    “However, the provision for an application for extension was maintained and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) can grant the extension for a period not exceeding two months. The FIRS can take a cue from the GRA’s approach by seeking an amendment by the legislature.”

  • Row over FIRS chair: Finance Minister shortlists six

    Row over FIRS chair: Finance Minister shortlists six

    • Makarfi withdraws from panel

    • Candidates face panel on March 3

    • Staff grumble over acting chair’s disqualification

    A fresh row has broken out over the short-listing of six candidates for interview for the vacant office of the Executive Chairman the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

    The Minister of Finance, who is also the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, has raised a panel to interview the candidates on March, 3.

    Members of the panel are the Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, who is a respected chartered accountant; the immediate past Chairman of the FIRS, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, Nike Ogunlesi (Fahion Designer, and owner of Ruff and Tumble), and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Fiannce, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

    But following controversy trailing the short listing of the candidates by the Consultants, Makarfi has withdrawn from the panel of interviewers.

    Investigation by our correspondent revealed that apart from issues bordering on the choice of consultants, the choice of the six candidates from the South-East and South-South has raised ethnic suspicion.

    Some of the candidates are, Ms. Mfon Akpan of Barclays Bank London; one Victor of KPMG and former Managing Director, Diamond Bank, Emeka Onwuka, who is curently the chairman of Enterprise Bank Limited.

    It was learnt that none of the qualified candidates from the North, including the acting Executive Chairman, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, made the list.

    Mashi, who succeeded Omoigui-Okauru, had generated N3.401 trillion in the past eight months.

    The figure was N468.65 billion higher, when compared with the total collection of N2.93 trillion for the same period last year out of N3.6 trillion provisional annual budget estimates for the year 2012.

    The staff of the FIRS are also aggrieved that out of the over 700 qualified chartered accountants in the employment of the agency, none was recommended for interview.

    Most stakeholders and staff of the FIRS have raised eyebrows that the engagement of Phillips Consulting, a development alleged to be outside the Act and statutory procedure for appointing the Executive Chairman of FIRS.

    They are also questioning the criteria adopted by the consultants engaged to screen over 30,000 candidates who applied for the job.

    They have alleged that the short-listing of candidates had been done by the consultants to “achieve a pre-determined agenda for some candidates being brought from the United Kingdom .”

    The inclusion of the immediate past Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Omoigui-Okauru, has attracted protest as staff have raised issue of a likely bias.

    A highly-placed source said: “The process of appointing a substantive Executive Chairman had commenced in April, 2012 with a pronouncement by the President that the position would be advertised and filled through a competitive process. The process was however, stalled and only commenced in September, 2012, with an advert issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance calling for interested applicants to apply.

    “The controversy however, commenced thereafter, with several applicants challenging the propriety of appointing external Consultants, Phillips Consulting to carry out a process, which is ordinarily the prerogative of the President.

    “It was the view of several applicants that the President was unduly ceding his powers to Consultants on the misleading advice of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    “It was also felt that the process and criteria adopted by the Consultants was illegal as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2007 clearly provided that the appointment of the Executive Chairman of the FIRS was to be done by the President subject to the confirmation of the Senate.

    “The Act did not create room for the use of Consultants to carry out a process, which would have been better handled by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as has been previously done. In addition, the criteria put out by the Consultants was at variance with the requirements in the FIRS (Establishment).

    “Even within the Ministry of Finance, the process of short listing candidates is creating ripples because the entire process was cloudy as only the Minister and the Permanent Secretary could state what criteria they adopted.

    “Since Mrs. Omoigui-Okauru, who is from Edo State , spent two terms (eight years) on the job, the normal thing is for the North to produce the next Executive Chairman.

    “Out of 52 years of Nigerian independence, the leadership position was only occupied by a Northerner for only five years, and the fact that the last eight years have been occupied by a Southerner, logically it means the position should now go to the northern part of Nigeria .

    “Are they saying that there are no capable hands from the North to man the FIRS? This is unfortunate.”

    Another source faulted the involvement of the former Executive Chairman of FIRS in the panel which will interview the six candidates on March 3.

    “Well, some of us felt that being the immediate past Executive Chairman, she is an interested party, whose neutrality cannot be guaranteed.

    “The composition of the panel is also alleged to be skewed towards a predetermined end and appoint her favoured candidate to the position.”

    A third source said: “The set up of the panel informed the decision of the Chairman, Senate Committee of Finance, ex-Governor Ahmed Makarfi, to withdraw from the body.

    “He said he does not want anything that will affect his personal integrity.”

    “We have just heard that the preferred candidate is rumoured to be an employee of Barclays Bank in the United Kingdom , with no practical experience in tax administration in Nigeria or the United Kingdom . The preferred candidate is said to be a former colleague of Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru in Arthur Andersen and Co.”

    “The disturbing trend noted by the source is the preponderance of invited candidates linked to the former Executive Chairman, FIRS, which is being interpreted by many as a move by the Minister to continue the tenure of the former Chairman by proxy.”

    The aggrieved stakeholders called on President Goodluck Jonathan to “take deep interest in the appointment process.

    The source added: “There are fears that the Minister might want to control the affairs of the FIRS.

    “In spite of the impressive record of the FIRS, the Ministry of Finance has engaged McKinsey and Co to come and take over some core functions of the FIRS, such as auditing, tax arrears and debt enforcement, amongst others,” the source, alleged.

  • Ask state governors how they spent VAT – FIRS boss

    Ask state governors how they spent VAT – FIRS boss

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it does not know what state and local governments do with their share of the monthly Value Added Tax (VAT) allocation that it remits to the Federation Account.

    Speaking at the opening ceremony of the nationwide VAT enlightenment campaign in Abuja on Monday, the Acting Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, implored Nigerians to ask state and local governments what they do with the monthly VAT allocations they receive.

    Mashi stated that 85 per cent of the VAT that FIRS collects is transferred to states and local governments’ accounts while the balance of 15 per cent is remitted to the federal government.

    The FIRS boss admitted that ordinarily VAT remittances are to be spent on the provision of social infrastructure, he however asked Nigerians to demand from their state governors what they do with the states’ share of VAT.

    Mashi noted that during military rule in the early 1990s the state military administrators were directed to indicate which roads or social projects were financed with VAT proceeds, but he lamented that the practice had since ceased.

    He said, “We at the FIRS cannot explain what states and local governments do with VAT money. You should ask the state governors what the VAT they received is used for. FIRS only collects VAT and after deducting its collection charges remits the balance to the Federation Account where the money is shared among the three tiers of government every month.”

    The FIRS boss then disclosed that Nigeria is the only country where all the money collected from taxes are diluted into one purse and spent according to the whims of those in power.

    Mashi explained that VAT proceeds were to be spent on the provision of social amenities.

     

  • NICON, 43 others sue FIRS to tribunal over N1.15b excess tax

    NICON, 43 others sue FIRS to tribunal over N1.15b excess tax

    NICON Insurance Plc and 43 others yesterday in Abuja, dragged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the Tax Appeal Tribunal over the non-refund of about N1.15 billion overpaid stamp duties.

    In an appeal filed by their Counsel, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), the insurance firms alleged that they paid the excess stamp duties to the Federal Government through FIRS between 2002 and 2006.

    They averred that the respondent acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by refusing to refund the excess stamp duties to them.

    They said FIRS also erred in law, “in refusing to refund excess stamp duties paid on various increases on their share capital to the tune of N1.15 billion,’’ stating that the respondent erred in law in the decision that the appellants’ claims for refund of excess stamp duties paid by them on their respective statements of increase in share capital were time barred by virtue of Section 21 of Stamp Duties Act Cap S.8 Laws of the Federation, 2004.

    Sunday Oghayei, who stood in for Osipitan, said the appellants’ claims “are for a refund of excess stamp duties paid over and above the amount prescribed by relevant Statute/Money received by the respondent.’’

    The appellants are seeking for a “declaration that the decision of the respondent that the application of the appellants for refund of excess stamp duty payments on increases in their share capital between it and FIRS is statute barred is incorrect, arbitrary, oppressive and a derogation of the appellants’ rights,” they said.

  • Revenue chief advocates harmonisation of tax laws

    Revenue chief advocates harmonisation of tax laws

    Director at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Samuel Ogungbesan, has called for the harmonisation and coordination of all tax legislations and their codification into one supreme document.

    Doing so, he said, means putting all tax issues on the same page. “Without this, there will always be uncertainty in the law and the implementation thereof. When a country has clear laws, it makes it easier for companies to want to come and invest because they know that there is certainty, fairness and trust between themselves and the law,’ Ogungbesan said at the Ernst & Young tax conference, held in South Africa.

    He said large multinational companies contribute 80 per cent to the country’s revenue and occupy only three per cent of the existing business space. This, he said, emphasises the need to strengthen the Transfer Pricing (TP) laws, as tax administrations are aware that effective transfer pricing rules are key to ensuring that multinationals report and pay tax on the correct proportion of profits they make.

    He disclosed that Nigeria has released the TP regulations and would soon be signed off by the Federal Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General for it to become law.

    The FIRS Director, also called for reforms in the Nigerian tax system to enhance stability of the sector.

    He said the FIRS is re-engineering Nigeria’s tax systems to ensure there is transparency, understanding and certainty on legislation and practice when doing business in the country.

    He explained that tax matters need to be made easy to administer, given the important role they play in the economic and national development of the country. “We need to increase our tax base and have an extensively high measure of predictability in order to attract investments,’ he said, in a statement.

    He said Nigeria, with its 37 state tax authorities, still has a lot to learn on taxation. However, he explained that Nigerian tax system has undergone significant changes in recent times, with the laws being reviewed for simplicity.

    He said a new National Tax policy has been drafted, awaiting government’s approval. “The policy, which will be enforced by the Federal Ministry of Finance, calls for standardisation between tax law and practice across all tiers of government. It also provides for exchange of information and statistics across all spheres in order to keep tabs on taxpayers, “he said.

    The policy, he stated, will facilitate coordination between all agencies of government and harmonise the laws and practices across State Internal Revenue Boards.

    On the rationale for the conference, Abass Adeniji, Partner, Tax, Ernst & Young, said the annual event was designed to showcase the firm’s strength and expertise as well as integration to its existing and potential clients, globally.

    According to him, Africa Tax Conference provides an opportunity to demonstrate how connected Ernst & Young is as a single firm through- out the sub area.