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Senate queries FIRS over N17.7bn missing tax

Published

3 years ago

August 17, 2021

Some Nigerian companies are said to be evading tax payment with change of office location as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) can no longer trace them.

The FIRS has reportedly lost about N17.69 billion to the unnamed companies operating within the country, and the Senate has given the tax agency 90 days ultimatum to recover the funds.

The lawmakers directed FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami, to apprehend the tax defaulters and remit the lost funds to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF).

It was gathered that the N17.69 billion was lost within the calendar year of 2015, a report by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) disclosed.

Senate ordered the tax administrator to blacklist the companies involved in the tax evasion, multiple media reports stated on Monday.

The yet to be recovered funds are Value Added Tax, Company Income Tax, Withholding Tax, Education Tax and NITDEF. This led to a query from the Auditor General.

The office of the AuGF, “the FIRS in its response to the query said it had recovered N2,879,152, 077.76 but actual receipted recoveries made by FIRS was N273, 038,474.74, leaving a balance of N17,417,303,090.90 to be recovered.

“Several companies were also discovered to have defaulted in filing their annual returns, many of which FIRS said could not be located due to change of addresses.”

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