Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has appointed Sterling Bank Plc as a collecting agent to recover taxes from 2,933 defaulting companies. Chairman, FIRS, Tunde Fowler disclosed.
In a letter addressed to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, the tax agency informed Sterling Bank of the failure of 2,933 companies to comply with provisions of the tax laws by not paying taxes due to the FIRS.
The letter read in part,
“Pursuant to my powers under Section 49 of the Companies Income Tax Cap C12 LFN 2004 as amended and Section 31 of the FIRS (Establishment) Act No. 13 of 2007, I hereby appoint your bank as a collecting agent for the full recovery of the amount displayed on the attached schedule payable to the FIRS.
“In this regard, you are required to set aside the aforesaid sum and pay same to the credit of these attached companies in full or partial amortisation of its aforesaid tax debt. This should be done prior to the execution of all or any related transactions involving these companies or any of its subsidiaries.
“I further request that the FIRS be informed of any transactions prior to execution on the accounts, especially the transfer of funds to or from offshore or local accounts of these companies or any of its subsidiaries. Only on my authority should such transactions be exited.”
The FIRS also requested the bank to forward to it, within 72 hours, the receipt of the appointment letter, detailed bank statements and financial records for the attached companies and/or any of its subsidiaries, holding accounts with them.
Nairametrics had reported that all was set for FIRS to dispose properties of 52 companies over tax defaults valued at about N3.4 billion. Though, FIRS’ Legal Department was said to have already begun the process of selling these properties.
It was learnt that apart from the 52 companies, 10 other companies were under investigation for tax evasion while enforcement action is expected to be carried out on another 10 companies in Lagos with a total tax value of N727.42 million.