The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Tuesday indicated plans to deploy necessary technology for the implementation of Common Reporting Standards’ (CRS).
The move, which is in line with the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on the common reporting standards (CRS) signed by the Federal Government, will allow the Nigerian government to automatically receive information on the bank accounts held in other countries by Nigerian tax payers.
Giving this hint at the KPMG Tax breakfast meeting in Lagos, FIRS’ Head, International Tax Department, Mr. Mathew Gbonjubola, said that the plan would entail using technology to uncover multinationals who may try to engage in tax avoidance or reduce their taxes to be identified.
The tax expert said: “On automatic exchange of information, Nigeria signed the bilateral convention on the CRS and the regulations that would drive that is already in draft.
“The guidelines are also in draft and we are already putting together the ICT structure that would help us to administer the automated exchange of information. Because the automated exchange of information is unlike the information on request, it is driven by technology.
“We are advancing on this development and very soon, we should be coming out with regulations and then we should certify to start to exchange information automatically.
“We are now for the first time also going to be drafting and implementing a tax treaty policy. This is going to drive our tax treaty network; who we are going to negotiate treaty with and who we are going to discontinue treaty with”, Gbonjubola added.
In his speech, the Partner and Head Transfer Pricing and Consumer and Industrial Markets Tax, Mr. Tayo Ogungbenro, pointed out that transfer pricing (TP) environment was changing in terms of both risks and opportunities.
He explained that in view of the increasing call for more transparency, multinationals were left facing more complexity than ever before, adding that to cope with the emerging trend, multinationals more be committed to best practices in their tax management initiatives
“Multinationals need to ensure that they stay up-to-date with the latest TP developments and best practices. In doing so, they can optimise the opportunities, global effective tax rates and ensure they remain compliant with changing guidelines and regulations, while at the same time minimising the risks associated with TP audits”, Ogungbenro urged.
