Tag: FIRS

Tax: ‘No need for separate TIN to open bank accounts’ – FIRS clarifies

Aminu Imam
FIRS clarifies

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), has clarified that Nigerians do not require a separate Tax Identification Number, (TIN), to open or operate bank accounts, contrary to widespread public belief. According to FIRS, the TIN framework has been designed to integrate seamlessly with existing national registries, making every eligible individual or entity automatically identifiable for tax purposes. Under the new National Taxpayer Directory, introduced by the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (2025), individuals’ TINs are automatically linked to their National Identification Number, (NIN), while corporate entities’ TINs are tied to their…

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Auditor-General report exposes ₦75.5bn financial infractions in FIRS, others

Aminu Imam
Auditor General report

A report by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) has exposed significant financial infractions of up to ₦75.5 billion in the revenue and economic sector, particularly the Federal Inland Service, (FIRS). The annual report was to check non-compliance and internal control weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in 2021. The infractions included unrecovered taxes, unapproved payments, and overpayments, with notable cases in the South-East, South-South, Northern region, FIRS headquarters, as well as several tax offices within the nation’s capital. The audit showed that the…

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Tax reforms Bills: “Govs. limited knowledge responsible for criticism” – Oyedele 

Aminu Imam
Oyedele on tax reform

Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, yesterday advised critics of President Bola Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills to study the documents for informed opinions. Recall that Tinubu on October 3 last year transmitted his four tax reform Bills to the 10th National Assembly for approval. They consist of: the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill. Since he unveiled the Bills, Tinubu has come under intense criticism, particularly from…

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Tax Collection System: “Businesses will suffer, economy’ll retrogress if States collect VAT Oyedele

Aminu Imam
Oyedele on tax collection

The Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, has raised the alarm that businesses will suffer while the economy would retrogress if State governments are allowed to collect value-added tax. Speaking on a live television programme at the weekend, Oyedele recalled that a similar approach was attempted in the 1980s with sales tax, but that the sub-national governments failed to generate significant revenue through it. By 1999, we were writing the constitution because we now have the 4th Republic. But what we did was to just replicate the…

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Three FG agencies spend N533bn on revenue collection in 7 months

Aminu Imam
FG agencies

Three Nigerian revenue-generating agencies – Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), deducted N533.11bn as costs of revenue collection in the first seven months of 2024. This marks a 99.85% increase from N266.75bn in the same period in 2023, according to reports from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) published by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS). FIRS claimed the largest share with N254.82bn, followed by NCS with N147.64bn, and NUPRC with N130.64bn. The agencys higher collection costs are likely due…

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FG to slash monthly petrol import cost by $610m with crude oil sales to ?angote refinery in Naira

Aminu Imam

Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zach Adedeji, has announced that the Federal Government will reduce monthly spending on petrol imports by a whooping $610 million by supplying crude oil to ?angote Refinery and other local refineries in the local currency, the Naira. Adedeji made this statement on Monday, following the approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) that trade among local refineries be denominated in naira with immediate effect.  Adedeji said about $660 million is spent monthly on fueling importation, amounting to about $7.92 billion every year.

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Relief for taxpayers, as FIRS approves full conditional waiver on outstanding liabilities

Aminu Imam

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), has approved a full waiver of penalties and interests on all outstanding tax liabilities, subject to the payment of the full principal before December 31, 2023. The waiver was disclosed in a recent public notice signed by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Zack Adedeji. The agency said the concessions, which align with Section 32 of the Federal Inland Service (Establishment) Act, LFN 2004 (as amended), were considered in recognition of the challenges faced by many taxpayers in settling their outstanding tax obligations and in line…

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N200bn Tax Evasion:FIRS gives BUA Industries 7 days to submit relevant documents

Aminu Imam

The Nigerian Government, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has issued a seven-day ultimatum to BUA Industries Limited to reconcile with the Government or pay N198.7 billion arising from non-compliance with income tax laws and Value-Added Tax (VAT) returns remittance. The tax liability is for 2022. A letter addressed to the Managing Director of BUA Industries Ltd, dated September 19, 2023, from Bar Beach Micro and Small Tax Office, said the failure of the company to provide the documents requested would force the service to apply the provisions of…

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Tinubu fires FIRS Chairman, Nami; appoints Adedeji as replacement

Aminu Imam

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of a new Acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS). The new replacement is Zacch Adedeji, who is to take over from erstwhile Chairman, Muhammad Nami, whom the President directed to proceed on 3 months of pre-retirement leave with immediate effect, leading to his eventual retirement from service on December 8, 2023. Zacch Adedeji was appointed in acting capacity for a 90-day period before his subsequent confirmation as the substantive Executive Chairman of the FIRS for a term of four…

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FG grants N16 trillion waiver to Dangote, Honeywell, others

Aminu Imam

The Federal Government has foregone N16.76 trillion in revenue to tax reliefs and concessions given to large companies between 2019 and 2021. These were contained in the tax expenditure statement (TES) reports in the Medium-Term Expenditure and Fiscal (MTEF) strategy documents posted on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation. As of the end of 2021, 46 companies had benefitted from various tax incentives and duty waiver schemes while the requests of 186 companies were still pending. The TES deals with revenue forgone on Company Income Tax (CIT),…

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