Operation of the Tax Invoice
(a) Regulation
The FIRS has taken steps to provide in the Act specific obligations on taxable firms. The statute states that "each Taxable firm is obligated to issue a Tax Invoice at the time of delivery of a taxable good or service". This means that only a taxable firm is obligated to issue Tax Invoice and without fulfilling VAT registration requirement, the firm will have no right to Issue Tax Invoice. It is an offence however for a taxable firm to fail to register for VAT as well as failure to issue tax invoice when it is already confirmed to be doing business. Stiff penalties have been provided in the VAT Act to check these abuses. Section 32 of VAT Act.
The Tax Invoice should be issued at the time of delivery of the taxable goods or services. This emphasizes that the tax is due at the time of delivery and not at the time of payment. An exception to this rule may exist only where payment is received before the deliveries.
(b) Requirements of a Tax Invoice

The Tax Invoice must contain the under-listed information which relates to the taxable deliveries. These are:
• name, address and VAT registration number of the firm that delivers the taxable good or Service.
• name and address of the person/company receiving the taxable good or service
• description, type, number, unit price and total sales value or consideration of goods sold or purchased
-value added tax (VAT) charged or collected and rate applied
• date of delivery.

Penalty Provisions
Section 29 & 31 of the VAT Act provides stiff penalty for failure to issue tax invoice. A person who fails to issue tax invoice for goods sold or services rendered is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of 50% of the cost of the goods or services for which the invoice was not issued.

Taxable firms are free to print their Tax Invoice from any source, but they must ensure that their registered addresses and VAT registration numbers are printed on the Invoices.

Cash Registered for Retailers
Requirements
Every trader who carries on businesses! Restaurants, hotels and other similar businesses will be required to install a cash register machine for the business or issue tax invoices whichever is convenient, on which the consideration for supply is based. For this category of taxpayers, particularly where invoices have not been issued e.g. Supermarket stores turnover figure will be presumed as VAT-inclusive and the implication here is that because the taxpayer has installed a Cash Register Machine he is deemed to have performed his obligation of bookkeeping and issuance of receipts. VAT will then be charged based on his total cash receipts.



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