While Nigeria was trying to recover from the economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, another nationwide lockdown emerged in October 2020. The lockdown was an outcome of the EndSARS protest. EndSARS is a movement to stop police brutality in Nigeria as well as to seek political and economic reforms. The peaceful movement in October 2020 later turned violent and led to socio-economic issues. They include loss of lives, vandalism of properties, looting of businesses, insecurity, hunger, and anger. The federal tax authority has introduced palliatives to ease the disruption of the EndSARS protest on taxpayers.
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will waive interest and penalty on tax liabilities arising from self-assessment, desk audit, field audit, or investigation if a business pays in full the principal part of outstanding tax liabilities. The time frame is between 4 November 2020 and 31 December 2020. Other concessions include the extension of filing monthly withholding tax (WHT) and value added tax (VAT) returns to the end of the month. Before the waiver, the due date was the 21st of the month following the transaction. Taxpayers who are unable to source for FOREX to settle their tax liabilities can pay in Naira. The rate will be the prevailing Investors and Exporters (I & E) FOREX window rate on the day of payment.
