Barely 24 hours after Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) Lagos directed it to pay N900 billion (about $2.2 billion) which is 50 percent of a disputed N1.8 trillion ($4.38 billion) outstanding tax liabilities to the Federal Government relating to its previous years’ operations, MultiChoice Nigeria Limited has countered the order.
The company, which is a division of a South African group that provides DSTV product in Nigeria, maintained that the order issued by the Tribunal did not compel it to make payment of the stated amount, being half of the disputed tax assessment which is under appeal.
It stated: “The direction issued by the TAT in accordance with paragraph 15(7) of the Fifth Schedule to the FIRS Establishment Act requires MultiChoice Nigeria to deposit with FIRS an amount equal to the tax paid by MultiChoice Nigeria in the preceding year of assessment OR one half of the disputed tax assessment under appeal, whichever is the lesser amount plus 10%.
“The lesser amount is the tax paid by MultiChoice Nigeria in the previous assessed year which is substantially less than the disputed assessment.
“MultiChoice Nigeria is a law-abiding corporate citizen and continues to engage constructively with FIRS in an attempt to resolve this matter.”
The Federal Inland Revenue Service earlier stated that the deposit of 50 percent of the sum was a condition that had to be fulfilled by the company before the Tribunal could hear a full appeal on the matter.
It would be recalled that the FIRS had last month instructed banks to freeze the company’s accounts following its alleged refusal to grant access for the tax auditors to its servers.
The tax agency’s Chairman, Muhammad Nami, said then that banks would have to recover the N1.8 trillion which the tax agency computed as outstanding tax liability of the company.
