By Omodele Adigun and Steve Agbota
As the Federal Government commenced data mining of high net-worth Nigerians with a view to bringing them into the tax net early next year through the Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) has targeted 90 per cent tax compliance in 2018.
This is coming on the heels of the tax authority’s assurance that resuscitated business would be given ample time to pay backlog of taxes.
Addressing newsmen at different fora last Wednesday in Lagos during the VAIDS workshop, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, said the mandates and objectives of FIRS and state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is to fund their respective budgets.
He explained that, “FIRS should be able to fund the federal budget, while the state IGR should be able to increase to the level that states don’t look towards Abuja on a monthly basis to fund their budgets. “And I think that is where we are heading to through VAIDS and as long as we can achieve a 90 per cent level of compliance, both from the corporate and individuals, I will say that we have met our target.
“Nigerians are law abiding and love Nigeria and I think we will get higher level of compliance both at the corporate and individual levels. In terms of compliance level presently, a lot of individuals and corporate organisations have been asking questions and I think a lot of them are waiting for December 31 before they can enjoy the benefit of not paying any penalty before they can actually sign on into VAIDS or some might sign on before first quarter of next year,” he said.
As for comatose businesses, he said, “a business that is dead is of no value to tax administrator. Like a doctor, our aim is to keep the patient alive. Our objective is to keep the taxpayer going. So if you nearly filed for bankruptcy; you got a loan and you are bringing the business back to life, make sure you pay the current tax. We will give you enough time to pay the backlog.”
On extending the deadline of VAIDS beyond March 31, 2018, the FIRS boss said there would be no extension beyond the stipulated date, adding that in terms of actual numbers for individuals, “it is still low but hopefully, it would improve very soon.”
However, he dismissed the allegation raised by some people that VAIDS was designed to target only middle class net worth people, saying the initiative is targeting everybody especially the high net worth people.
He stated: “The Minister of Finance has also made mention of 500 high net worth individuals across the nation and we do have their names. We are waiting for them to come forward in line with this. If time given to them expires and they don’t come forward, we will write them. We have information on the owners and properties, on the owners of nice cars and we have an idea of what the value of these items are, we can easily compare with their tax records.”
The tax administrators have come together but not to make life unbearable for taxpayers, but to make it more convenient, more transparent and actually easier for taxpayers to handle their tax affairs.
Speaking on the importance of audit in the tax system, he said, “when an audit is being conducted, sometimes, tax administrators find out certain things and at that point, there is no way such audit can be stopped.”