The Tax Appeal Tribunal, sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, reversed N29.2 million Federal Inland Revenue Service’s (FIRS) imposed as value added tax on Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank. The bank had challenged FIRS’s imposition of the amount at the tribunal challenging the demand notice.
The tribunal chairman, Alice Iriogbe, delivering judgment, held that FIRS failed to prove that those services carried out by the bank were VATable. She ruled further that the bank was not liable to be taxed on those services according to the VAT Act and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act, 2011 as amended. Mrs Iriogbe further held that the FIRS Service Information Status number 9, also supports the fact that service by Mortgage Institutions are not VATable. “In this circumstance, the tribunal holds that the VAT assessment dated May 17, 2018, in the sum of N29.2 million and the Respondent’s Demand Notice dated July 5, 2018 are hereby discharged,” the tribunal held. The appellant (the bank) had sought the order of the tribunal for the annulment of the FIRS’s assessment or demand notice dated May 17 and July 6, served on it with penalty at 10 per cent and interest at 15 per cent.
Source: Daily sun
