Six months ago, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) appointed banks as agents of defaulting taxpayers an annual bank turnover of NGN1 billion. The goal was to freeze the bank account balances and distrain properties of tax debtors. Now, FIRS intends to recover tax debts from 40,000 businesses with the help of banks and the Nigerian Police. Businesses that are yet to pay tax since 2015 and have an annual bank turnover of NGN 100 million to NGN 999 million fall under this category.
If FIRS has already frozen a corporate account, the typical information needed to unfreeze the account is:
a. A copy of the audited financial statements
b. Evidence of tax returns filed with FIRS
c. Evidence of tax payments
d. Where (a) to (c) above is not obtainable, part or full payment of the tax estimate from FIRS. Thereafter, a company will file the outstanding tax returns.
One goal is certain from FIRS in 2019 – high net worth taxpayers should expect more visits from the taxman. It is a good time to speak with your tax consultant in this regard.