- FIRS Moves Against Multiple Taxes in LGs
As part of its moves to curb multiple taxes, the Federal Inland Revenue Service has urged local government autorities to recognise stickers presented to them from other regions in the country.
It stated, “To avoid incidence of double taxes, any emblem/sticker obtained in any one local government area in the country should be acceptable in other local government areas across the country.”
The FIRS also noted that it was cogent to ensure the consolidation of all states taxpayers’ database on a single platform.
The FIRS said this in a communiqué issued after a recent meeting of the Joint Tax Board.
The FIRS also instructed state tax revenue authorities to explore all non-Personal Income Tax sources in bringing about an improvement in the non-PIT to internationally generated revenue.
The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Tunde Fowler, said that tax administrators had a strong sense of responsibility to the nation.
He said, “Our sense of responsibility stems from the fact that the nation is relying on us to provide it with adequate funds with which to fund its development objectives.
“More so now that we can no longer rely on oil revenue as the major source of funding, we have to seek innovative ways to maximise non-oil revenue collection.”
In order to maximise non-oil revenue, he said it must provide taxpayers with the most convenient, transparent and efficient way to fulfil their tax obligation.
Fowler said that the FIRS had been able to do this with the deployment of the six e-solutions which gave taxpayers a platform to conduct their tax transactions any day and time from anywhere in the world.
“Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is still one of the lowest in the world and we have to increase this significantly if we are to provide the funds that will give us meaningful development and take the country back to the days when things worked,” he said.
