The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, has said that the establishment of Non-Resident Persons’ Tax Office (NRPTO) is intended to ease tax assessment and payment of taxes by non-resident persons in the country.
Specifically, the FIRS boss noted that the “devotion of attention to this segment of taxpayers is to enhance tax certainty, promote voluntary compliance, reduce tax disputes and avoid incidence of double taxation.”
He stated that the NRPTO would be devoted solely to international taxation to serve non-resident persons, including all tax treaty operational issues, cross-border transactions, inter-company transactions and income derived by non-resident individuals in Nigeria.
Fowler, in a statement he signed on the innovative step taken by the agency on the NRPTO, clarified that a non-resident person referred “to a foreign company as defined in the Companies Income Tax Act (Cap C2, LFN (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 2004 as amended) or an individual (who is resident outside Nigeria and derives income or profit from Nigeria) as defined in the Personal Income Tax Act (Cap P8, LFN 2004 as amended).”
According to him, FIRS identifies non-resident taxpayers as a very important segment of the tax-paying public hence the need to have an office dedicated specially for them in order to give them specialised attention.
The nation’s chief tax administrator stated: “The devotion of attention to this segment of taxpayers,” Fowler said, “is to enhance tax certainty, promote voluntary compliance, reduce tax disputes and avoid incidence of double taxation.
“In view of the foregoing, the FIRS hereby notify all non-resident persons operating in Nigeria and the general public that: Non-Resident Persons’ Tax Office (NRPTO), which will handle all tax affairs of non-resident persons (individuals or corporate) has been established.
“The NRPTO is located within the International Tax Department at FIRS Building, Ikoyi, Lagos, and as from January 1, 2020, all non-resident persons liable to tax in Nigeria shall submit every return, correspondence or enquiry relating to all the taxes administered by the service to the NRPTO and that tax files of non-resident persons shall thenceforth be domiciled at the NRPTO,” Fowler added.
