FIRS Challenges States, Embarks On Monitoring Of VAT Compliance

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) plans to embark on a nationwide Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) compliance exercise from July 2022.

A public notice announcing the compliance monitoring exercise was released yesterday and signed by the FIRS executive chairman, Muhammad Nami.

According to the statement, the exercise is coming on the heels of an earlier notice by the service to commence the enforcement and recovery of unremitted tax deductions owed the federation by some states and local governments.

The VAT and Withholding Tax Compliance Monitoring exercise will involve teams of FIRS officers visiting selected taxpayers and taxable persons to review their VAT and Withholding Tax records.

“The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) shall embark on a nationwide VAT and WHT compliance monitoring exercise with effect from July 1, 2022. 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 notice said.

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In the notice, Mr. Muhammad Nami also highlighted that the exercise would cover 2016 to 2020 accounting years for taxable persons whose records have been audited by the service up to 2015 accounting year.

He however noted that for taxpayers whose records have not been audited by the service up to 2015, the exercise will be extended to include the prior years that have not been tax audited.

The service also called on all taxable persons and tax agents to immediately remit deductions of VAT and Withholding Tax they have made on its behalf.

“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.”

The notice also stated that those who would be visited during the monitoring exercise will be notified and informed of the required documents for review beforehand.