The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has threatened to santion at least 6,772 of defaulting billionaire taxpayers for their failure to pay due taxes on earned incomes.
The FIRS Chairman, Babatunde Fowler, who indicated the Service’s intention to sanction the affected tax evaders, said that discoveries in their tax default were uncovered through information sourced from their bank accounts data.
The tax expert, who spoke on sundry aspects of the nation’s tax administration and innovative efforts being undertaken by the FIRS to enhance its efficiency at a stakeholders’ meeting on in Lagos, confirmed that the Service would soon clamp down on the bank accounts of the tax defaulters in order to make them pay the due taxes and possibly face trial.
The FIRS boss noted that most of such taxpayers, who have between N1 and N5 billion in their accounts, had no Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) or have TIN but had not filed any tax returns as taxpayers over the years.
Fowler clarified: “What we have done is what we call ‘substitution’ which also is in our laws which empowers us to appoint the banks as collection agents for tax. So, all these ones of TIN and no pay and no TIN and no pay, to the total of 6772 will have their accounts frozen or put under substitution pending when they come forward.
“First, they refused to come forward in 2016, they refused to come forward under VAT and are still operating here. So, we are putting them under notice that it is their civic responsibility to pay tax and to file returns on these accounts.
“We looked all businesses, partnerships, corporate accounts that have a minimum turnover of N1 billion per annum for the past three years. First of all, the law states clearly that before you open a corporate account, part of the opening documentation is the tax I.D. From the 23 banks, we have analysed so far, we have 31,395 records, out of which effectively minus duplications we had 18,602.
“We broke those into three categories: Those that have TIN tax I.D, those that don’t have no TIN and of course no TIN no pay and those that have TIN and have not even paid anything.
“So, on a minimum, every company or business included here over the last three years have had a banking turnover of N3 billion and above. Some of them have had banking turnover of over N5 billion and have not paid one kobo in taxes.Now the total number of TIN and no pay is 6772”, the FIRS chief added.
According to him, in furtherance of the Service’s current efforts to have a credible database of all taxpayers nationwide, the tax agency has started a comprehensive audit exercise that involves both national and regional audits.
He explained that the exercise became imperative because the FIRS discovered that majority of the major organizations that were allowed to do self-assessment, did not truthfully declare or pay the taxes that were due.
Fowler pointed out that the discovery led to the raising of assessment of over N805 billion from 1,324 National Audits out of which 499 (taxpayers) have N219 billion.
This is even as he decried the acts of businesses who collect VAT and not remitting to government covers, stressing that the tax agency have found out that a number of businesses , collect VAT that do not remit to government.
To reverse the ugly trend, the FIRS boss said: “So we are going back old school way and I would just like to publicly display this, this is the new VAT certificate which would be given to all tax payers and we expect them to display it in their places of business because we also found out and I will actual figures that the number of businesses were not even registered taxpayers and were collecting VAT.
“Without having a tax, I.D as an agent or a collect of VAT there is no way you can remit that VAT to government. So, in short, they sort were collecting and adding it to their income and spending it”, Fowler added.
