The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it targets 90 per cent tax compliance from both individuals and corporates in 2018.
The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Babatunde Fowler, said this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a training workshop for tax professionals on the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), which took place in Lagos.
According to Fowler, the target should be for the federal government as well as states’ revenue mobilisation agencies to be able to fund their respective annual budgets.
“In terms of FIRS, when I talk about FIRS, I mean the states as well, because I am the chairman of the Joint Tax Board; the mandate is that we should be able to fund our respective budget.
“The FIRS should be able to fund the federal budget and the states should improve to a level that they don’t need to look towards Abuja monthly to fund their own budgets and I think that is where we are heading to. As long we can achieve a 90 per cent level of compliance, both for corporates and individuals next year, then I can say we have met our target,” he explained.
The FIRS chief executive urged Nigerians to meet their tax obligations for government to be able to carry out developmental projects.
“In a democracy where the people have voted, and they have elected an individual to rule them politically, I think they should give the government all the support,” he said.
Fowler stressed the need for taxpayers to take advantage of the window created through the VAIDS to meet their obligations.
According to him, the tax administrators did not come up with the initiative to make life unbearable for taxpayers, but to make it more convenient, more transparent and easier for them to handle your tax affairs.
Responding to a question on how a company under examination would be able to key into the scheme, Fowler explained: “When an audit is being conducted, sometimes tax administrators find out certain things and at that point in time, we cannot stop the audit, unless the firm declares fully what the situation is. So, once an audit has started, we would finish the audit.
“However, you will still have the benefit of not paying interest or not paying any penalty. You can also come forward with any information that you have.
“We would look at the information and if we decide that the information contains some things that we already know, then we may stop the audit.”
He added: “An organisation that we are auditing right now, came up and applied through VAIDS, with a liability of N6 billion. The question is, for them to wake up and offer to pay N6 billion, it means that the team that we sent out must have stumbled against something we didn’t know.
“Sometimes, when they give out information, you might find out that someone in that organisation, maybe the accountant would give out a document, which unfortunately, management wanted to hide. So, what we are just simply saying is that it is time for us to come truthfully.
“Any tax payer that refuses to pay tax on profit, the tax administrators have come together, not to make live unbearable for you, but to make it more convenient, more transparent and actually easier for you to handle your tax affairs.
“We cannot do it alone. There are lots of rooms that need to be fixed, there are lots of healthcare requirements for the youths, and education, and we need the support of all to do that.”
Fowler said the agency had deployed technology to simplify the process of tax payment, just as he expressed optimism that from the first quarter of next year, the FIRS would establish cubicles where taxpayers can walk into any FIRS office and file their returns online.
“For those of you who are not sure how to do it, there would be staff to take you through the process,” he said.