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The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has decried filing of tax returns by ‘Businessmen’ who parade themselves as tax consultants, saying that henceforth the agency would relate only with the Chartered Instituted of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) or other recognised professionals in handling such professional transactions.
Babatunde Fowler, Executive Chairman of the FIRS, speaking at the on-going Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria Annual Conference on Tuesday, said effective from January 2019, the FIRS will not accept any tax returns prepared by non-professionals.
Fowler said working with professionals from CITN would ensure more efficiency in handling tax related transactions, while shoring up revenue for the nation and properly engaging professionals in their chosen endeavour.
“We must be engaging professionals and members of CITN to improve our revenue targets and give a professional outlook to what we have been doing to improve taxation in Nigeria. We are currently leveraging on technology to ensure proper tracking and expanding of our tax returns”, he said.
He also observed that the agency has been leveraging on technology to facilitate easier filing of returns in its operations.
“On e-services, we have perfected the ability to upload returns and assessment notices together with assessment calculations to the tune of 97% completion nationwide, and they include: e-registration, e-filling, e-taxation, e-stamp duty, e-WHT credit notes, e-reciepts and e-TCC.”
Fowler argued further in his presentation that, “The extent to which an economy is able to grow sustainably, depends largely on its ability to generate tax revenue to finance it’s expenditure and the efficiency of its tax system.
It would be noted that the Association of Charted Certified Accounts global suggests that the IMF recommended minimum threshold of Tax to GDP ratio of 15%.
As confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) Nigeria falls far below this threshold and is low, compared to other countries.
As a result of this, Fowler said the Federal Government is working to improve its projects and development through improved taxation.
“A look at the World’s most developed economies and societies shows that there is clearly a relationship between tax and development, as these are countries with established tax system, where public infrastructure, institutions and systems can be sustainably developed and maintained from tax revenue.”he said.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the typical developing economy collects just 15% of GDP in taxes, compared with 40% collected by a typical advanced economy.
On the heels of this development, Fowler said working closely with the CITN professional would assist Nigeria reach the target set by the IMF and have more resources for development projects across the country.
