Federal Tax agency collects N118bn through AEOI

shakirudeen taiwo

July 4, 2017 12:15 PM

The agency achieved 400,000 increase in the country's tax net through information sharing between it and 36 states in Nigeria.

Mr Babatunde Folwer, Chairman of FIRS has been on the move to increase the country's tax net through various strategies.

Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it has collected about N188 bn ($385 million) and increase the country’s tax base by 400,000 through the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) initiative.

Mr Babatunde Folwer, Chairman of the FIRS disclosed at the weekend during the concluding ceremony of a three-day workshop on Automatic Exchange of Information Foundation course held in Lagos.

Mr Folwer stated that FIRS signed an MOU with the 36 states on the exchange of information and in three months, it grew the tax base (tax payers) by close to 400,000.

“Some states grew with thousands of companies that were not registered for tax. We had a handshake with the Nigeria Customs in terms of Value Added Tax, and in the last 18 months, we have been able to get N118bn,” he said.

Mr Folwer also said his agency plans to join the global forum on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) to reduce the incidence of tax evasion.

He said that AEOI would help the country increase its tax revenue for national development.

Mr Donald Godfrey, Deputy President of The Global Forum on Transparency and Information Exchange for Tax Purposes, who was also present at the event take Nigerian authorities to make effort towards joining the AEOI to aids its fights against illicit fund transfers and low tax collection.

“Beginning in September 2017, 50 countries will begin exchanging information on financial accounts automatically, and by September 2018, another 50 will join the fold."

“So far, there is one African country, South Africa, committed to 2017 and Ghana committed to 2018. We have a number of countries that we think already have the capacity to do information exchange automatically; especially Uganda, Cameroon and Nigeria,” he said.

Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is a global platform which provides the exchange of non-resident financial account information with the tax authorities in the account holders’ country of residence.

Also, participating countries in the initiative would exchange pre-agreed information each year, without having to send a specific request.

shakirudeen taiwo