Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigerian (CITN) has thrown its weight behind the Federal Government on the recently launched Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).
“The VAIDS is a right step in the right direction as its intentions are laudable. It also possesses the necessary ingredients for turning around the fortunes of the government through non-oil revenues so as to cater for the welfare of the citizens and overall development of the nation,” the CITN said in a statement made available to BusinessDay, signed by Cyril Ede, its president/chairman of council.
“The Institute looks forward to working with the government to ensure fairness and equity under this scheme. The Institute lend its support to the Federal Government’s move towards awakening the tax culture and expand the tax base through the Executive Order signed by the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Thursday, 29 June 2017.
“While the order addresses issues such as commencement dates, taxes covered, assessment period and eligible persons and timeframe for declaration and payment, we await the procedural framework from the Ministry of Finance for purpose of assisting in the understanding of the implementation process in a manner that is consistent with extant laws. It is gratifying to note that the State Internal Revenue Services are also part this worthy initiative as it would contribute immensely towards boosting their internally generated revenue.
“This order provides a legal framework for the Ministry of Finance to set up the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme in collaboration with all 36 states of the federation,” the CITN said.
The primary purpose of the scheme is to bring more taxpayers into the tax net so as to enable them pay all outstanding taxes, and the benefit to the taxpayer is a waiver of interest and penalty as well as opportunity to instalmental payment up to a period of three years. The scheme will run for a nine-month period, which commenced from July 1, 2017.
It would be recalled that the Institute had been in the vanguard of calling on the government to declare tax amnesty wherein taxes due on incomes are demanded, while the government forgoes the interest and penalties accruing. Such calls are contained in previous Annual Tax Conference Communiqué and several advocacy efforts of the Institute with other bodies such as the National Association for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, etc.
“Equally worthy of notice is the opening statement in the executive order acknowledging the duties of the State towards Citizens and their welfare. This announcement is therefore, a pointer to the fact that the government has a listening ear as it continues to aggregate the position of stakeholders in the tax space with respect to the broader and specific issues affecting poor voluntary tax compliance in the country,” according to the Institute.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
