The Nigerian government has backtracked on its earlier issued guidelines on the new banking Self-Certification Forms, saying the notice does not apply to everyone.

On Thursday, the Nigerian government ordered all persons holding accounts across financial institutions and insurance firms, to complete and submit self-certification forms.

It stated, “This is to notify the general public that all account holders in Financial Institutions (Banks, Insurance Companies, etc.) are required to obtain, complete, and submit Self – Certification Forms to their respective Financial Institutions. Persons holding accounts in different financial institutions are required to complete & submit the form to each one of the institutions. The forms are required by the relevant financial institutions to carry out due diligence procedures, in line with the Income Tax Regulations 2019.”

However, on Friday morning, after receiving expected backlash on social media, the FG said

“We apologize for the misleading tweets (now deleted) that went up yesterday, regarding the completion of self-certification forms by Reportable Persons,” and that, “the FIRS will clarify Nigerians on the objectives of the directive.”

The FIRS earlier today made a statement, that the guidelines are only for non-residents, and people paying tax in more than one country.

and other persons who have residence for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction or Country. Financial Institutions are expected to administer the Self Certification form on such account holders when information at its disposal indicates that the Account holder is a person

— FIRS Nigeria (@firsNigeria) September 18, 2020

“The Self Certification Form is basically to be administered on Reportable persons, holding accounts in Financial institutions, that are regarded as “Reportable Financial Institutions” under the CRS. Reportable persons are often non-residents and other persons, who have residence for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction or Country.”

“The information that indicates an account holder is a resident for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction, is expected to be available to Financial Institutions during account opening processes, for the KYC and AML purpose.” the statement read.

The Nigerian government on Thursday tweeted an order to all persons holding accounts across financial institutions and insurance firms to complete and submit Self-certification forms.

This was announced by the Federal Government in a social media statement on Thursday. The FG warned that failure to comply may include a monetary penalty or inability to operate the account.

The Government also urged Nigerians to comply with the requirements and execute all forms needs, if not sanctions may be introduced in the forms of monetary penalty or inability to operate the account.

The government however deleted the tweet on Friday, explaining that it does not apply to everybody, contrary to what it had earlier tweeted. The FIRS claims those affected are non-residents.

Nairametrics has seen a copy of the “Self-Certification Forms” detailing the information that account holders are meant to share. See below;

NB: This article has been updated to reflect new information regarding who the accounts holders (reportable persons) are.

Download (PDF, 839KB)

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it generated a total sum of N490 billion in tax receipts in the month of July.

While making the disclosure in a statement on Thursday, September 17, 2020, the revenue agency disclosed that N438 billion out of that amount was generated from non-oil receipts, which represents 89% of the total figure, while N52 billion is from oil receipts, which represents 11% of the total collection.

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The FIRS stated that the significant drop in oil revenue could be attributable to the global shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic which led to a crash in crude oil prices and huge output cuts by oil-producing countries.

The statement also quoted the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, as attributing the increase in the non-oil receipt to the various reform measures that have been introduced by the board and management of the service, as well as the dedication of the staff. He said that it was gratifying to note that their collective effort as stakeholders was paying off.

(READ MORE:FIRS retires coordinating directors, appoints new ones)

The FIRS boss revealed that the FIRS continued to record a significant increase in tax revenue from non-oil sources, despite the national and global economic crises caused by COVID-19. He said that non-oil tax receipts had consistently contributed 75-90% of the total tax receipt in recent months.

READ: OECD reduces global economic decline to 4.5% from earlier forecast of 6% 

Non-oil tax receipts have consistently contributed 75-90 per cent of total tax revenue in recent months. Out of N490 billion collected by the Service in July, N52 billion, representing 11% came from Oil sources while N438billion, representing 89% came from Non-oil receipts.

— FIRS Nigeria (@firsNigeria) September 17, 2020