The Federal Inland Revenue Service has assured taxpayers who pay their tax returns three months before their due date, that they will get the benefit of early payment and prompt action by receiving a 2% reduction on the amount payable. Chairman of the Service, Mr. Muhammad Nami, disclosed this on Thursday in Lagos as he concluded his public enlightenment and sensitization tour of the South-West region.
A statement by Director, Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS, Mr. Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, quoted the FIRS boss as warning taxpayers, who have slipped into willful or inadvertent dormancy to resume their payment of relevant federal taxes, to avoid paying penalties for tax default contained in the 2019 Finance Act. Nami said: “Under the 2019 Finance Act, penalty for default in tax payment has been increased from N20,000 in some cases to as high as N50,000 in the first instance and N25,000 subsequently if you continue to default on paying your tax.”
The tax administrator therefore urged all taxpayers in default across the country to clear their backlog of tax payments immediately to avoid sanctions from the FIRS.
The FIRS boss, who also included a tour of the Service’s offices in Apapa, Eric Moore, Iponri and Awolowo Road, Ikoyi as part of his Thursday’s itinerary, met with senior and junior FIRS officials at their workstations to obtain first-hand information on their challenges in the office and on the field, including an on-the-spot assessment of facilities and the condition under which the members of staff of these FIRS officials work.
He engaged the workers in down-to-earth discussions and asked pointed questions from desk to desk and floor to floor on the challenges the staffers face on the job from each staffer as he inspected these FIRS offices. This is even as he proferred remedial solutions to a number of issues brought up by the workers and pledged prompt resolution of others as soon as he returned to Abuja.
