The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler has said that the Agency will soon begin the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on online transactions. This statement was made on Saturday 18th of May 2019 in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in New York. The initiative is to be carried out via an instruction from the FIRS to the banks, while there will be follow-ups to ensure that every VAT that is due to be collected is collected.
The FIRS Chairman also stated that the agency had started acting against companies and businesses that refused to embrace the Federal Government’s tax amnesty programme. According to him, FIRS hopes to generate between N750 billion and N1 trillion from the clampdown, which includes closure of defaulters’ bank accounts.
On the issue of wrong clampdown of accounts, Mr Fowler attributed this to administrative error, he apologized and stated that the lien on such accounts has since been lifted. Other issues discussed were the Joint Tax Board’s plan to raise the country’s tax population to 45 million through the use of the Bank Verification Number database and sister agencies with relevant information.
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