SAN FRANCISCO, November 26, (THEWILL) – The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has revealed that the Federal Government would write about 500 prominent Nigerians, with property and trusts abroad, inviting them to regularise their tax compliance status at home.
She stated that the 500 Nigerians would be served letters from Monday to take advantage of the tax amnesty to regularise their tax status in order to avoid prosecution and fines.
According to a statement from her office, the Minister disclosed this on Saturday at a workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Joint Tax Board (JTB) for lawyers, accountants and other professionals in Lagos.
The names of the affected Nigerians has been compiled by the government recently as part of tax amnesty policy under the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) initiative.
VAIDS, an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the State Tax Authorities, provides tax defaulters a nine-month opportunity to voluntarily and truthfully declare previously untaxed assets and incomes but is expected to elapse on March 31, 2018.
“The first 500 letters are ready and will go out this week,” the Minister said.
“Receiving the letter is not an accusation of deliberate wrongdoing but rather a notice that the data suggests possible underpayment and a prompt to check compliance.
“It is premature to call such persons tax evaders as there are many reasons that taxpayers may have failed to comply. We will only label people as real tax evaders when the amnesty deadline expires and they have failed to regularize.
“We are sending out thousands of letters to those in the high risk categories. But our advice is that every person and every company should do a self-assessment and take advantage of VAIDs to correct any under declaration, irrespective of whether they get a letter.”
Adeosun also revealed that the Federal Government, as part of efforts to develop reliable tax payers database, had reviewed all companies that received major payments from the it in the last five years to identify those who may have made money from government, but under-declared.
On personal income tax, she said government had reviewed property and company ownership as well as registration of high value assets and foreign exchange allocations, to give a sense of the lifestyles of their owners.
“We found major non-compliance. In some cases, people declared as little as N10 million as income, but purchased expensive property overseas and in Nigeria, registered high specification vehicles and funded luxurious personal events, costing multiples of the declared income,” she noted.
“We have blocked a major loophole by using data to profile tax payers. Thus, someone owning properties across multiple states and overseas can selectively declare knowing that tax authority had no means of cross checking.
“This is especially the case with overseas assets and income where state governments lacked jurisdiction. But with the centralisation of data under Project Lighthouse within the Federal Ministry of Finance, a major loophole has been plugged.”
