As the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) prepares to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on online transactions, the questions on many lips is how can it work in Nigeria?
“What Nigeria (FIRS) needs to do is to first study digital economy; What does it mean? In which different areas do we have it? What are the issues, difficulties in collecting its taxes? What is the best practice that has been adopted around the world? “ So advised Mr Taiwo Oyedele, a partner with PwC on Tax and Regulatory services. “It is difficult to deal with digital economy, e-commerce inclusive. Even the largest and the most powerful economy in the World, the US, is still struggling with this digital economy. But they have gone a little bit ahead of the rest of us. So we can then borrow from some of their initiatives,”Oyedele added. The FIRS Chairman, Mr Babatunde Fowler, in far away New York, USA, recently said FIRS would soon begin collection of VAT on online transactions. According to him, “soon, we will ask banks to impose VAT on online transactions for purchases of goods and services.” He explained that the online transactions tax is something not new. “It actually should be in existence. We will certainly follow up to make sure that every VAT that is due to be collected is collected, ” he stated, adding that the move was part of measures by FIRS to meet its N8 trillion revenue target for 2019. To heed Oyedele’s advice, let’s see how this VAT model is being practised in some climes:
Remote sellers’ tax in US
On June 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court fundamentally changed the rules for collection of sales tax by Internet-based retailers. According to www.nolo.com, in its decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., the court stated that individual states can require online sellers to collect state sales tax on their sales. This ruling overturns the court’s 1992 decision in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. The Quill case prohibited states from requiring a business to collect sales tax unless the business had a physical presence in the state.
Online sales tax in UK
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the tax authority in the United Kingdom, as of 2017, approached sellers (on internet platforms) directly and via the marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, searching for non-VAT compliant non-UK sellers. According to SimplyVAT.com, quoted by blog.taxJar.com, if you are a non-resident UK business and hold stock in the UK, either in a 3PL centre such as Amazon, you have created a taxable supply and have an obligation to VAT register in the UK. If a seller has been trading in the UK for many years without a UK VAT number, HMRC does want the seller to pay the back taxes. Once a seller registers for VAT and has to catch up on a lot of historical returns , which means they will have a lot of back-dated taxes to pay, HMRC will give the seller time to pay as long as the seller offers a reasonable payment plan.
Likely scenario in Nigeria
In an interview with Daily Sun even before Fowler announced the plan, Oyedele painted a likely scenario in Nigeria this way “Take Amazon for example: if you want to order something from Amazon, you can open your computer now or your phone, just log on to the internet. And you can order. Now let’s say you order handset. The handset in Nigeria is liable to VAT. But Amazon is not a Nigerian company. It is supposed to charge VAT. They don’t even know whether there is VAT in Nigeria and they are not even interested. The phone is $50. They have not put VAT on it.

Source: Sun News
 
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