Finance Act Slams Higher Taxes On Rich Nigerians

• As FIRS unveils 2020 corporate plan, new structure

BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is upbeat that effective implementation of the new Finance Act will attract more revenue into the nation’s coffers with the rich and wealthy no longer having a field day dodging their tax obligations.

According to the Service, provisions in the Act have appropriately shifted tax burden to the elite who will now pay a more equitable share of their income as tax in the overall public good.

In statement issued on Saturday, the FIRS said in pursuant of equity for all stakeholders, Nigeria is on the “threshold of a new, transparent, accountable and fair tax regime in which those who make more from the system pay a more equitable share of their income as tax towards the public good, especially in lifting 100 Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years as envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari”

Citing the presentation by a tax expert, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, on ‘Strategies for implementing the new VAT Regime’, the FIRS assured that contrary to speculations in the public space, the new 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) would not impact negatively on poor Nigerians.

Mr Oyedele said henceforth, it is the rich and ‘the well-to-do’ that would have to pay their fair share of taxes in the country unlike the existing practice where most of them applied some underhand methods to evade paying correct taxes to government .

The tax expert maintained that the key to building a “fair, equitable tax system is transparency, accountability, integrity, work and objectivity”, adding that all these will combine to ” build confidence in taxpayers and stakeholders in the tax sector.”

The statement signed by FIRS Director of Communications, Abdullahi Ismaila, disclosed that this clear roadmap to achieving the national imperative was outlined as the Service’s Management Retreat rounded up in Abuja.

It further stated that besides the FIRS 2020 Corporate Plan, also unveiled at the retreat was the Service’s new organisational structure approved by the Board.

The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami, who presented the new structure, said many positions within the organisation were currently vacant and therefore open to the FIRS officials.

He however challenged the staff to acquit themselves creditably within the shortest possible time by meeting set collection targets in order to merit taking up higher responsibilities through the available vacancies.

According to him, the exercise would be transparent as the vacancies are strictly available on measurable merit and performance criteria in line with the Service’s goals.