In a bid to ensure total tax compliance in the country, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has disclosed plans to put new policies in place. The disclosure was made by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami during the KPMG Tax Breakfast Seminar.
According to KPMG Tax Consultant, Victor Adegite in a series of tweets, Nami said the FIRS plans to deploy more of its workforce to tax audit. Currently, only 16% of the FIRS headcount handle tax audits. It will be scaled up to 30% of the headcount.
Yesterday, we had our Tax Breakfast Seminar which focused on the budget and the Finance Act. In attendance was the Executive Chairman of the FIRS. I will share with you in few tweets some of the insights provided by the FIRS Chairman.
It's a thread !
— Victor Adegite (@VAdegite) February 15, 2020
At the seminar focused on the budget and the Finance Act, Nami spoke on different matters surrounding the new actions to be taken during the course of the year. Some of the actions include the Finance Act and the new tax rules it brings as well as the intended issuance of information circulars by the service.
“The Finance Act 2019, will take effect in the 2020 year of assessment i.e. the new tax rules will be applied to the 2019 financial statements for the calculation of Company Income Tax (CIT). For Value Added Tax (VAT), the commencement date is 1 February 2020 as earlier announced.
“The FIRS will issue Information Circulars to clarify grey areas as to the implementation of the Finance Act 2019. On the issue of the administrative structure of the FIRS, the FIRS Chairman confirmed that the Service now operates a decentralized structure with Tax Controllers having powers to deal with tax matters within their coverage area,” Adegite tweeted.
[READ MORE: FIRS boss, Nami discloses why FIRS failed to meet revenue target under Fowler)
Details: Nami also disclosed that the FIRS would be collaborating with tax authorities at the state level. In order to make sure that companies do not evade tax, there would also be an increase in the level of information shared among the tax authorities.
Some of the agencies to collaborate with include Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) among others. The FIRS boss also said there would be increased use of technology this year such as the use of the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) for all tax filings.
Recall that Nairametrics reported the launch of a national intelligence gathering system by FIRS as well as a partnership with the ICPC.