The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), yesterday, ramped up its tax enforcement drive when its teams shut down premises of companies with tax liabilities in Warri, Lagos and Ilorin.
In Warri, Delta State, the enforcement team visited two companies.At JAD Construction, along Enerhen Road, the FIRS team evicted all the staff before sealing off the premises for unremitted taxes in excess of N400million, accumulated from 2013.
Efforts by a management staff, simply identified as Mr. Ben, to present some tax clearance documents as proof of payment were rebuffed. The by the enforcement team insisted they had a duty to seal unless there was verifiable proof of payment of the said arrears.
“These defaulters had the option of clearing the arrears to avoid being sealed even at the point we came in. Now they still have a duty to settle the debt to get unsealed. If they fail to settle the arrears or attempt to operate under FIRS lock and key, we have other measures of enforcement against them,” said Mandeun.
At Bredero Pipelines Services at Sedco Road, Uvwie Local Government Area, the team met a team of policemen at the premises. The policemen claimed the company has been shut for more than three years following a court injunction restraining the workers or management from working there pending determination of court case between management and staff. The company has an aggregate debt tax of N178,638,649.90
In Lagos, the enforcement team, led by Chinazor Edeh, visited Dee Jones Petroleum and Gas Limited at Beachland Estate, Apapa. The company is said to owe N31million, a tax debt the operational manager said he was not aware of.
He later phoned the company’s tax consultant, who admitted that the company is owing but asked for more time to enable it pay.
This was rejected by Edeh, who insisted that the company had to pay immediately or have its premises shut. Edeh ordered the premises shut at about 11.50am.
The enforcement team in Ilorin, Kwara State, visited Kwara Hotels, where the new management, Integrated Services Limited, explained that it was neither aware that the previous management had a N10.5million tax liability nor of correspondences between the hotel and the FIRS. The argument ended when a call was put the FIRS headquarters, which confirmed the existence of the hotel’s tax liabilities. The new management then signed an undertaking to reach the previous management and revert to the FIRS within 30 days.
Also in Ilorin, the FIRS team visited Henry George Company Limited, which owes a little over N2million. But the company escaped being shut having paid a part of money on Monday and its officials were headed to the bank to pay the balance while the enforcement team was in the premises.
On Monday, an FIRS enforcement team, visited the premises of Eagle Package Printing Limited in Ota, Ogun State, over a tax liability in excess of N21million. However, the company was not sealed, as members of its management ordered the payment of in N10million.

http://sunnewsonline.com/firs-shuts-firms-in-warri-lagos-ilorin-over-unpaid-taxes/

Seems pretty much that FIRS had these companies on fixed tax based on projected turnover rather than assessment, those figures are well questionable. You can't just slam my table with some bulked up figures of tax payment request and expect me to pay up. How are my earnings assessed? Because I own a company? So I should cough up how much again? 400 million naira in racked up tax? Kuku take the company, take the workers join

They might be paying tax into unknown accounts. The level of corruption in this nation eh it surpasses devil's hand work

. Paying heavy taxes, and nothing on ground to show for it

Wait o, na true o, were do all our revenue money go to? All we keep hearing is oyel oyel oyel

FTC...

Oya make I drop this joke here
Brb

pay heavy tax only to be squandered by government Officials.

Terrible country. How will companies operate without making remittances to the authorities?

They should kuku close down kioks too.

400M


In this recession.

Tax enforcement is now real!

Nice one boys.
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NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY TO AVERT THE REALITY, A GOOD WOMAN IS VERY MUCH AWARE THAT SHE BELONGS TO THE KITCHEN - THE SITTING ROOM - AND THE OTHER ROOM.

MY WIFE BELONGS TO THE KITCHEN :
A good woman cooks for her husband, except in few cases where class and schedules are involved, and they employed cook(s). But despite that, she still monitors the food items that goes into the kitchen and oversees how food is being prepared and served in the house. She never leaves the kitchen completely in the hands of the cook(s). She often visit the kitchen to prepare for her husband his favourite meal. A woman is the Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of the Kitchen.

MY WIFE BELONGS TO MY SITTING ROOM:
The sitting rooms is the crucial meeting point of the family where they meet, play and liaise together. The home management skills of a good woman, her good heart and her charming smiles makes the sitting room conducive for the whole family as a meeting point. When a man is married to a bad woman, the entire family is permanently confined to their individual rooms whenever they are at home. They only visit the sitting room to receive visitors and retires to their rooms as soon as their visitors left. A good woman belongs to the sitting, because she is the only person to make the sitting room a good meeting point for the whole family.

MY WIFE BELONGS TO THE OTHER ROOM:
At the end of the hustles and hassles of the day, the other room is where the husband and wife retires, either to perform their marital duty or to cuddle themselves till the next day. A good wife surely belongs to the other room because the other room is the most important room in the family. The other rooms is where most important decisions in the family are made. The other room is where they agree to disagree. The other room is where they fulfil the law of procreation.

CONCLUSION:
If you have a wife that does not belong to the KITCHEN, SITTING ROOM and THE OTHER ROOM, my dear, go and remarry, you are still a bachelor.

Am not in any way in support of tax evasion but this will definitely lead to more job losses if the firms are shut since its obvious that companies are managing to stay afloat..
Let the FIRS find a way to space the payment and enforce it while the companies still function just for the sake of common man.
After all we are yet to see what they have done with the tax we have been paying since or the recovered loot..

People loosing their jobs here and there.

Okay

.

Very soon dem go tax the unemployed for job-hunting taxes!

OK

as if thy are not aware of d recession

don4real18:
We pay taxes with nothing to show for it... The federal and state governments are glorified omo-onile

same thing have been thinking over and over again.

TAX IS SCAM

this


Their tax alone go solve this economy issue??

steady getting tired of Nigeria... going back to my country EKITI STATE.

Look down

We pay taxes with nothing to show for it... The federal and state governments are glorified omo-onile

[size=20pt]PRESS RELEASE

Time is running out for Nigerian Companies to get their Tax Houses in Order[/size]

Companies should respond by putting in place systems and processes that enable them to report accurately on revenue and expenses and to streamline tax submissions

LAGOS, Nigeria, October 18, 2016/ -- With Nigerian tax authorities under pressure to find new sources of revenue, companies that do not yet comply with tax regulations must work fast to get their books in order and pay their tax dues.

That’s according to Magnus Nmonwu (Twitter.com/MNmonwu), Regional Director for Sage in West Africa (www.Sage.com/Africa), who says federal and state tax authorities are taking a hard line towards non-compliance as they race to bring in new tax revenues to compensate for falling oil revenues. Companies should respond by putting in place systems and processes that enable them to report accurately on revenue and expenses and to streamline tax submissions.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) recently said (http://APO.af/0y01xp) it has been able to add 700,000 companies to the tax base by deploying inspectors armed with notebooks to register businesses and individuals. These companies are then audited to check whether they have paid their taxes. The FIRS has also approved a 45-day tax waiver window on penalty and interest accruing from outstanding tax liabilities for the period, 2013 to 2015.

Those businesses that have not complied to date may benefit from this waiver to get their affairs in order. This means companies would only need to pay the principle amount of tax they owe, which could save them a substantial amount of money.

However, those that don’t comply are bound to face stiff penalties, including fines, punitive interest, and possible criminal prosecution of CEOs and board members, and closure of their offices. “To take advantage of this golden opportunity, many companies will need to put in place systems and processes that enable them to get better visibility into their finances at a fast pace,” says Nmonwu.

Zero tolerance

Nmonwu says that the tough tone from Nigeria’s tax authorities shows that companies can no longer risk non-payment of tax or incorrect remittances of taxes to the relevant government agencies, whether the reason is deliberate evasion or an accidental oversight.

One of the most common reasons for non-compliance is that many organisations don’t have automated systems for accurate recordkeeping, precise calculations and deductions, and preparation and submissions of necessary statutory returns, he adds.

Some examples of employee-related tax obligations Nigerian companies face include the following: 

Filing annual returns of all remuneration paid to their employees and taxes deducted and remitted to the tax authorities on or before 31 January of every year. Failure to do so carries a maximum penalty of N500, 000 for the employer and N50, 000 for individuals.
Remittance of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax each month for each employee to the relevant state internal revenue services, on or before the 10th day of the following month.
Contributions of 10% and 8%, respectively, of their employees’ monthly remuneration to Nigeria’s contributory Pension Scheme.
Statutory payments, such as the Employee Compensation Scheme (formerly known as the Workmen’s Compensation Act), Development Levy, National Housing Fund and  Industrial Training Fund.

Automated solutions make it easy to comply

Against the backdrop of growing regulatory complexity, organisations need to realise that spreadsheets and other manual methods are no longer sufficient to meet their needs. Companies must instead implement solutions that streamline capturing of transactions, automate payroll calculations, processes and put visibility of the business in the hands of managers to enable them comply easily.

Such solutions also make it simpler to keep track of annual changes to tax regulations that impact on payroll tax calculations and various changes in legislation, says Nmonwu. These solutions help organisations to manage other challenges such as reducing the risk of internal fraud and getting better insight into business performance.

What’s more, the ability to generate tax certificates, reports and electronic payslips with the click of a button is a major timesaver. Nmonwu says that Nigeria’s federal and state governments are eager to expand their tax bases, and are investing heavily in modernising and streamlining tax administration.

This will help address some of the complexity Nigerian businesses face in paying tax. Nigeria aims to move from its current position of 181 out of 189 countries to top 50 on the Ease of Paying Taxes World Report (http://APO.af/rzLWV8) – which means that we will see a lot of reform of the tax system in the years to come, says Nmonwu.

“Today’s technology gives Nigerian companies the power to control their businesses from the palm of their hand. We connect our customers to accountants and partners with real-time and intuitive information about their business,” he adds. “Using technology streamlines compliance so companies can focus on their core business operations.”

Distributed by APO on behalf of Sage.

Hunger they town Ooo

Reading comments above its obvious people don't understand taxing system... Recession or not tax is a percentage of the money the company made...

We really need to look at our educational system

Regular payment of tax is inevitable. It's just that there is nothing to show for it with all the money realised from the tax.

i pay my taxes but this firs thing has to be carefully done. they should focus on simplifying tax payment and not increasing it which i heard they are planning now. more people paying small taxes will give govt more money than a few surviving firms that can pay high taxes

nonsense

we are trying to get out of recession...

the same companies that would get us out they are busy closing them down...over tax that would go into their pockets

this govt is in a very deep state of CONFUSION!!