Connect with us

Business

VAT defaulters to pay 10% as penalty under Finance Bill 2020

Published

on

Value Added Tax (VAT) taxpayers, failing to meet their payment obligations within the stipulated window, will face the sanction of having the payable amount upped from the standard 7.5% to 10%, according to the proposition of the Finance Bill 2020, currently undergoing legislative scrutiny.

Senate Leader Yahaya Abdullahi said Wednesday the legislation sought modification to both the Capital Gains Act as well as the 2019 VAT Act.

Abdullahi noted that the 28thsection prescribed penalty for refusal to inform authorities of address change and cessation of business.

The Finance Bill, which President Muhammadu Buhari dispatched to the National Assembly this week, raised the sanction for this breach by 900% from N5,000 to N50,000 in the first month and N25,000 in subsequent months.

It introduced a new Section 8 of the VAT Act, which made provision for the registration of a taxable person once the person initiated a business person.

“The penalty for failure to register (a company) has been increased from N10,000 to N50,000 in the first month and from N 5,000 to N 25,000 in the subsequent months,” Abdullahi said.

Read also: Nigeria generated N424.71bn VAT in Q3 2020 —NBS

“The new section 15 of VAT introduces a threshold for VAT compliance. Thus, companies with turnover of N25m or more shall render their tax on or before the 2lst of every month.”

He went further to say Section 36 (2) of the Capital Gains Tax Act was under review to scale up compensation for loss of office, currently fixed at N10,000 to N10 million.

“There is a new section 32 which provides that no tax shall apply to any trade or business transferred to a Nigerian company for the purposes of better organisation of that trade or business.

“This tax exemption is however not applicable if the acquiring company subsequently disposes of the assets within one year of acquiring same.”

The bill scaled second reading at the Senate on Wednesday and is planned as an auxiliary document to the 2021 Appropriation Bill also awaiting the National Assembly’s approval.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now