We will prove our tax compliance – Company replies
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), has raised an alarm over the level of non-compliance by MultiChoice Africa (MCA), the parent company of MultiChoice Nigeria (MCN).
According to FIRS, the company which provides services to MCN has never paid Value-Added Tax (VAT) since its inception.
This was revealed in an issued statement by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami.
Nami also revealed the FIRS has appointed Nigerian Deposit Money Banks as agents to freeze and recover the sum of N1.8 trillion from accounts of both MCN and MCA.
The FIRS boss explained that the decision to appoint the banks as agents and to freeze the accounts was as a result of the Groups under-remittance of taxes and continued refusal to grant FIRS access to its servers for audit.
According to the Chairman, Nigeria contributes 34% of total revenue for the MultiChoice Group, insisting that Nigeria must put a stop to all tax frauds that have been going on for too long, saying, “All companies must be held accountable and made to pay their fair share of relevant taxes including back duty taxes owed especially VAT.
However, in a swift reaction to the FIRS allegation, the group disclosed that it has not received any notification from the FIRS over the alleged tax evasion.
This was contained in a statement released by the DStv Multichoice media coordinator, Bamidele Johnson.
According to Johnson, the company would comply with the tax laws of Nigeria, adding that “MultiChoice Nigeria respects and is comfortable that it complies with the tax laws of Nigeria.
