Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it will embark on a nationwide Value-Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding tax (WHT) compliance monitoring exercise for all taxable persons from October 23.
Gatekeepers News reports that the FIRS Chairman, in a statement made available on Monday by Zacch Adedeji, said the move would enhance tax compliance and revenue collection in the country.
Adedeji said the monitoring exercise is in line with the FIRS Act of 2007 and will take effect from Monday, October 23, 2023.
“Pursuant to Sections 2, 8, 26 and 29 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2007 (as amended), notice is hereby given to all taxable persons or tax agents including Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of governments at the Federal, State and Local levels,” he said.
“The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) shall embark on a nationwide VAT and WHT Compliance monitoring exercise with effect from Monday, October 23, 2023.
“As a result, teams of officers from the Service shall visit selected taxpayers, taxable persons (including companies, NGOs or MDAs) to review their VAT and WHT records.
“The exercise shall cover 2019 to 2022 accounting years for taxable persons whose records have been audited by the Service up to 2018 accounting year.”
Adedeji explained that for taxpayers whose records have not been audited by the agency up to 2018, the exercise shall be extended to include the prior years that have not been audited.
“All taxable persons or tax agents who have made deductions of VAT or WHT on behalf of the Service are required to immediately remit all such deductions to the FIRS within two weeks of this publication,” he said.
The FIRS boss said taxable persons or tax agents who shall be visited for the VAT and WHT compliance monitoring exercise will be notified by the FIRS and the documents required for the exercise will be listed in the letter to selected entities.
