₦airaland Forum

Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris has been ruled out for the rest of 2019 after tests confirmed he has suffered ligament damage. The goalkeeper dislocated his elbow after landing awkwardly during his side’s 3-0 Premier League defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday. France head coach Didier Deschamps said yesterday that Lloris would almost certainly not be fit to return until the new year. Spurs later issued a statement to confirm that Lloris is unlikely to be able to train again until the end of this year, even though he does not require surgery. “Hugo Lloris has undergone further assessment this morning after sustaining a dislocated elbow in our match against Brighton on Saturday,” the club said. “The findings have shown that although surgery will not be required, our club captain has suffered ligament damage and is not expected to return to training before the end of 2019. Hugo is currently in a brace and will now undergo a period of rest and rehabilitation under the supervision of our medical staff at Hotspur Way.” Speaking earlier at Clairefontaine, Deschamps said: “I talked to him after he recovered emotionally from what happened. “It is difficult to give you an exact date in terms of how long he’ll need to recover. The possibility of a fracture has been ruled out, but his ligaments are affected. I’m not an anatomy specialist. “Anyway, as far as we are concerned, he will obviously not be able to play during this international break or the next one. “I’m not a specialist and I can’t tell you exactly [how long he will be out]. It is not a week, either, but he will not be back on the pitch in 2019. That’s almost a certainty.” Lloris will miss France’s Euro 2020 qualifiers this month against Iceland and Turkey and will also be absent from November’s matches against Moldova and Albania.

Source: Guardian

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In 2017, ASBIR conducted a tax audit on Polaris Bank. Subsequently, the Board issued the Bank with a demand notice accompanied by a tax assessment for payment of outstanding taxes and levies comprising of Withholding Tax (WHT), Pay as You Earn (PAYE), Development Levy, Business Premises Levy as well as interest and penalties for under remittance of its tax liabilities for 2006 – 2011 tax years. The Bank objected to the assessment and subsequently appealed to the TAT.
One of the major issues for determination at the TAT was whether ASBIR was entitled to collect penalty and interest based on the demand notices served on the Bank. The Tribunal held that Polaris Bank was not liable to taxes (including interest and penalties) on the assessment because the period assessed (2006 – 2010) exceeded the six years audit period allowed for tax authorities to make additional tax assessments pursuant to Section 55 of PITA. On whether the assessments were final and conclusive, the TAT held that the tax assessments by ASBIR were not final and conclusive because the Bank made a valid objection to the assessment within 30 days from the date the assessment was made as required under Section 68 of PITA. With respect to the Development Levy and Business Premises Levy, the TAT held that the ASBIR could not collect the levies because there was no primary tax legislation which provided for the imposition of the levies by the ASBIR. The Tribunal noted that the Taxes and Levies Act is not a primary tax legislation and also emphasized that the fact that Polaris Bank had paid the levies in the past would not make them liable for the levies.

Source: Mondaq

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Last week, the Minister of Finance announced the Federal Executive Council had approved an increase in VAT from 5% to 7.5%. Minister Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed also went further to explain that the government will be engaging with various stakeholders in a bid to get the increased passed into law by the National Assembly.
As expected, there have been several commentaries around this announcement with some for or against the policy. However, a twitter user and Senior Manager Tax and Transfer Pricing at KPMG Victor Adegite, weighed in on the discourse providing a useful insight into other areas of Nigeria’s VAT system that is perhaps flawed. He tweeted this in a series of thread which we have put together as an article for our readers who may not be on twitter.

Source: Nairametric

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“What that means is, if A wants to impress B, and takes B to eat at the Transcorp Hilton, A will pay VAT for services enjoyed. This is because of the environment. “The cost of the Coca Cola they will drink at Transcorp Hilton at N1,000 could have been bought at N100 in any supermarket without paying any VAT.
“Also, A can buy chicken, with all the ingredients in the market, cook it and eat without any VAT. But, instead of spending N5,000 for that meal, if A decides to go to the Transcorp Hilton and spend N20,000, then A must pay VAT. It is a choice A has to make. The only exemption for VAT are items required by everybody, regardless of choice. There is no VAT on those. Items like education, medical etc. These are things that, regardless of choice, one is expected to have. But, if one decides to buy a brand new car, one will be expected to pay VAT. The next question is what VAT is used for? About 85 per cent of VAT goes to state governments that cannot pay salaries or provide good roads or primary healthcare, despite being their constitutional responsibilities to do. If they do not have the funding, either through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE), personal income tax, or VAT, then they can’t do it. VAT is a personal choice. The same Nigerians go to Ghana, South Africa, England and pay VAT three times the amount they pay in Nigeria. Or they go to Dubai and pay the same amount collected in Nigeria.

Source: Global News

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Tottenham Hotspur allegedly fear that Harry Kane may express a desire to leave the club during the summer transfer window. Having come through the academy setup to score 171 goals from 262 appearances in all competitions, the forward is effectively regarded as a certain starter every week for the North London outfit. However, while the 26-year-old has a contract until the end of the 2023-24 campaign, the England international is keen to win trophies, something which he is yet to do with Spurs during his professional career. According to The Times, Spurs are growing increasing concerned that Kane will look for a way out of the club should they fail to improve on their inconsistent start to the season. The 7-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, combined with several squad members said to be keen on a fresh challenge elsewhere and the uncertainty surrounding boss Mauricio Pochettino, have left Spurs in disarray. The Premier League side would expect to receive in excess of £150m should they ever be willing to part ways with their most prized asset.

Source: Punch

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Trabzonspor midfielder Ogenyi Onazi opens up on life as a married man and how he stopped a thief in his track in Rome in an interview with JOHNNY EDWARD. How has marriage shaped you? You know when you are single, there are lots of things you do without even thinking. You don’t ask for the consent of anybody but at the point you’re married, you have a wife, a companion and somebody you have to share things with. So, it means there are lots of things you can’t just do anyhow, anymore. Can you share an experience? Now as a family man, I don’t go out too often as I have to plan how I spend my time. This is another important part of my life which has really given me a kind of calmness to plan, making me know what I need to do and what I don’t need to do. What is the difference between living and playing football in Italy and Turkey? Well, the difference is not much. Then in Italy, I had little time to play music with my friends, because you can find Nigerians in Rome which is a big city and you can call somebody to come around and play. But now in Turkey, it’s very difficult. I’m not even staying in Istanbul. I’m staying in Trabzon and anyone you want to call will say it’s too far. So, it’s very difficult and that’s why I’ve not played music since I got to Turkey. There was this documented story about you having lunch in a restaurant in Rome and there was a woman who had her handbag snatched and you ran after the fellow, knocked him down and retrieved the stolen bag. It was an extraordinary story. Can you recount exactly what really happened? It actually happened when I was having lunch with my elder brother at Rome restaurant, which was filled with tourists and I saw one guy acting suspiciously. So, I told my brother that the guy must be up to something because he was actually looking at me and my brother and looking around. I realised we were the only young people in the restaurant as the others were more elderly people around 40 to 45 years of age. So, I told my brother to go and lock my car first because I don’t know if I was the target or someone else. I got even more suspicious because of the umbrella the guy was holding because I thought it was a very hot afternoon but the area we were was well covered. Some people were sitting behind my table and the guy came towards them, passed right behind me and used the umbrella as a shield to block my view. He took the bag and walked very fast across the road. I realised he had taken something because he kept looking back as he was going but the people he stole from were quite drunk and not aware of what had happened.So, I told my brother to run and go through the other road and lay an ambush for him while I followed him. The streets in Rome are very long and you must cover about 300 meters before you can turn to another street. The guy was not alone and had about three other people but because they saw we were serious about the issue, they acted as if they were not involved. So, as I was following him and before I could get into the streets to clearly see him, he had thrown the bag under a car and started to run without it, I had to chase him. By the time he made the turn to another street, my brother, who was hiding beside a car stretched out his leg and tripped him. He fell down and I came and held him but he shouted that he had not taken anything but I insisted he had to come back to the restaurant with us. A lady who apparently was one of the gang members then came and was shouting as if he was her husband saying, “Leave him, he has not taken anything”, but I said no chance. By this time, we had created a big scene with several people starring to see what will happen. So, I took him through the same route he had been running and I was searching all around until I saw the bag under the car. So, I asked him to pick it up himself so as not to implicate me, and then I took him back to the place he took it from. The owner of the bag, a woman, still did not know what was happening until she saw her bag and her eyes seemed to clear because she started shouting, “This is my bag.” The bag was handed over to her and I asked her to check her money. She counted it and said it was complete – and it was quite a lot of money – and she said, “Oh, thank you, thank you.” I said its okay. Then people started to beat the guy as they were passing, so I told the owners of the restaurant that I wanted to leave and that they should call the police and hand the guy over to them because I don’t want to be involved officially. So, I left, but somehow, some people had already made some videos and that’s how it got to the media. Were you not afraid that he might be armed? Well, we had seen things like this while growing up in Jos, so it was not something to be scared about. If he was armed, he can’t take the gun. And even if he takes the gun, definitely he is not smarter than me. How do you find time to relax? Do you travel or you go on holidays? Unfortunately, I hate traveling and it’s definitely not my way of relaxing. I love to relax by playing music in the church. I also relax by being with my friends, around people who make me happy and we can all share laughter. Then I also love playing TV games and table tennis if I can find someone who is at the same level as me. If you’re too good for me I will stop playing with you because you’ll only be dealing with me (laughs). In fact, I have someone who always comes and play with me and I always beat him. That person is Funnybone. I have beaten him several times but he keeps coming back.

Source: Punch

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Liverpool star Mohamed Salah “must rest” and will miss Egypt’s friendly against Botswana on October 14, national team coach Hossam El Badry said Thursday. The announcement came days after Salah raised eyebrows by changing his Twitter bio to say he only played for Liverpool, removing any mention of his affiliation to Egypt. Salah finished fourth in the balloting for the FIFA best player award last week, with two of Egypt’s votes rejected by football’s governing body after they were signed in capital letters. El Badry said he spoke to Salah following a report from the national team doctor on the fitness of the squad’s overseas-based players. “I agreed with him that it is in his best interests and those of the national team that he rests,” El Badry told local channel MBC Masr. “He won’t be with us at the training camp for Botswana, but God willing, he will be with us for the official matches.” Salah scored twice on Wednesday as holders Liverpool defeated Salzburg 4-3 at home in the Champions League group stage. Salah and the Egyptian FA have butted heads before several times, most prominently when a photo of him was plastered on the squad’s plane ahead of the 2018 World Cup, causing sponsorship problems for the star. El Badry will take charge of his first match as Egypt coach against Botswana following his appointment last month. Egypt begin their qualifying campaign for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations at home to Kenya in November.

Source: Guardian

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Tuesday, arraigned a whistleblower, Lord Edem, before the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja for raising a false alarm over an alleged N700m pension and tax evasion fraud.
Edem was arraigned before Justice Hakeem Oshodi on one count of making a false statement to a public officer. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. It was gathered that Edem provided false information to a public officer and the EFCC about the involvement of a company, where he was an employee, Starsonic and Sacvin Group of Nigeria, in a pension and tax evasion fraud. According to the EFCC prosecutor, S. O. Daji, the defendant claimed that the management and staff of the company were involved in massive pension fraud, tax evasion and other fraudulent activities to the tune of N700m. He added that the defendant committed the offence on August 7, 2019. The offence was said to contravene Section 96 (a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. Justice Oshodi, a vacation judge, ordered the remand of the defendant in prison, while the case file be returned to the registrar for re-assignment.

Source: Punch

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Imo State governor, Emeka Ihedioha has said that less than five per cent of the state’s workforce of over two million pay taxes, saying that such a situation is unsustainable and unacceptable.
Ihedioha, who stated this at the occasion of his 100 days in office, also banned tax payments in cash throughout the state and introduced PayDirect platform with a single account. He explained that the action was part of steps taken by his administration to ensure transparency and accountability in the state’s governance process. He also noted that that the state could not achieve growth without a sustainable revenue generating system, pointing out that his administration had adopted other measures designed to plug leakages and increase the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR).

Source: Guardian

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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) says it is deeply saddened by the death on Tuesday night of two players of Nigeria Women Professional League (NWPL) club, Police Machine Female FC, who were killed by a hit-and-run driver that ran into about five persons in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. “It is with deep shock and sense of immense loss that we received the tragic news of the death of the players. It is a very, very sad situation for such young ladies to be cut down in their prime in such manner. “This is a tragedy of immense proportions. We are much grieved. Our hearts go out to the families of the players, Police Machine FC, the Nigeria Women Football League and the entire Nigerian Football family. We pray that Almighty God will grant the departed players eternal rest and also comfort those they have left behind,” NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said yesterday. Reports said the ladies, Aniebet Ekong and Glory Saturday were crushed by the vehicle as they left their team’s evening training session, with the team due to travel to Lokoja to participate in the Nigeria Women Premier League play-off competition. Another player, who was hit by the driver, is said to be receiving treatment at a hospital in the Akwa Ibom State capital.

Source: Punch

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Nigeria and South Africa were placed in the same group when the draw for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games qualifying tournament was made yesterday in Egyptian city Alexandria, reports AFP. Nigeria and South Africa are in Group B for the November 8 to 22 championship with the Cote d’Ivoire and Zambia, while Group A comprises hosts Egypt, Mali, Cameroun and Ghana. Teams are restricted to under-23 footballers and the finalists and the winners of the third-place play-off will represent Africa in Japan, where teams can use three ‘over-age’ players. Nigeria have won gold (1996), silver (2008) and bronze (2016) at Olympic football tournaments, Cameroun gold (2000) and Ghana bronze (1992). South Africa and Nigeria stood out during a three-round qualifying competition for the tournament in Egypt, with all matches scheduled for Cairo. The South Africans twice scored three goals against Angola and banged five past Zimbabwe in Soweto, as they chased a second successive appearance at the Olympics. Although lacking Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen, who were on senior national team duty, Nigeria crushed Sudan 5-0 last month after losing the first leg by a solitary goal. The tournament doubles as the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations and the previous two editions were won by Gabon (2011) in Morocco and Nigeria (2015) in Senegal.

Source: Guardian

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The Centre for Social Justice on Thursday said the decision of the Federal Government to increase the Value Added Tax from the current rate of five per cent to 7.2 per cent would increase revenue needed to finance the budget. The Lead Director, CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, said this in a statement issued in Abuja.
In the statement, he said as a country having one of the lowest tax to Gross Domestic Product ratio, there was a need to increase the tax rate to generate additional revenue. This, he said, was imperative following claims by the Federal Government that the country was facing fiscal crisis. He said, “Centre for Social Justice welcomes the decision of the Federal Government in the proposal for an increase in VAT from the current rate of five to 7.2 per cent.” He added that the new VAT rate would increase available resources for budget implementation and development across the three tiers of government.

Source: Punch

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The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has stated that registration of business names is necessary for both companies and small scale businesses as any enterprises operating without registering with the Commission is liable to be sanctioned.
Head of Bauchi State office of the Commission Alhaji Abdullahi Abubakar stated this, Thursday while speaking on the procedure and requirements for registering businesses at Business support clinic program and e-mentoring with mentors and mentees with beneficiaries of digital livelihood training for young women and girls organized by centre for information technology and development (CITAD) with support from equal digital skills fund held in Bauchi. He said it is compulsory for any one using any name for his business enterprises other than his personal name and surname to register it with the Commission adding that offenders risk penalty. According to him, registering the business will also help business men to have monopoly of the business names and get recognition as legal enterprises. The CAC boss noted that the registration costs the sum of ‘only N10, 000’ Also speaking, the representatives of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) Bashir Musa and Mohammed Chinade explained that after registering with CAC, manufacturers of consumable items should register with NAFDAC while SON registers companies producing both consumable and non consumable items to ensure only quality items are sold to Nigerians. Earlier, the Executive Director of the centre for information technology and development (CITAD) Mr Y.Z Ya’u represented by the technical officer of the centre Kamaluddeen Umar said the training was intended to equip young women with practical ICT training and use its tools that would help them in the ICT industry and to start up micro-enterprises.

Source: Blue print

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The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) Babatunde Fowler has warned the nation’s accountants not to support tax evaders but to assist in building a larger revenue base for the nation.
At the 49th Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, where Fowler was the keynote speaker at a panel discussion on “FIRS Power of Substitution. Critical Review and Matters Arising”, accountants and lawyers scoffed at Fowler’s admonition, alleging that he was employing strong tactics in getting taxpayers to be tax compliant. They told Fowler to abide, in strict terms, with the processes and stipulations of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007, which the FIRS Chairman maintained, is the source of his powers to place lien on the bank accounts of defaulting taxpayers. Fowler should collect taxes by abiding with the Rule of Law, the accountants charged. At the event chaired by former Executive Chairman, FIRS, Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, Fowler explained the dynamics involved in the Substitution of Accounts, and urged accountants at the conference to partner with FIRS to improve the revenue collection efforts of all tax authorities. “You play a very important role in this cycle. Without you, the chartered accountants, it will be very difficult to ensure that adequate taxes are being paid. Talking about corruption, corruption is not only when you do something wrong. Sometimes, corruption borders on when you do nothing at all. When you review the books that are brought to you, you do your own internal assessment on what your clients should pay, you are truthful, you drop accounts that are not willing to do the right thing”. “We should realise that the revenue collected by the FIRS is distributed among the three tiers of government: the Federal, State and Local Governments. Today, well over 30 states rely on that monthly collection. Without that monthly collection, you can imagine what life would be in those states”. “We are all here for this conference, certain that chartered accountants came from various states across the nation. If in your state, we were not able to support your revenue drive, what level of security would you have in your state? “I went to deliver a speech in one West African country. I was asked to come and encourage tax compliance, and I used a very simple example, an example I had used in Lagos, an example that you and I may not have thought about. Under the Joint Tax Board, JTB I went on a visit to a hospital in Lagos. The nurse complained about the highmortality rate of children under five. And I asked what was the main cause, she said ‘malaria’. And I said, so we have malaria medicine,she said ‘yes’. But I found out on that visit that for children, when malaria gets to a certain stage, it becomes irreversible and almost impossible to save that child. “The cost of that medicine for prevention is N2000. There are people in this country who do not have N2000 to treat malaria. Some pray and hope that the fever will break. But for some, they have no choice and they lose those children. They lose potential presidents. They lose potential political leaders. They lose potential inventors among others. This is endless. But with N2,000 you could save a life. “For those books that you look at, think about this. If you look at those books, you should know that for every additional N1billion or N2 billion that is collected, even if it is shared at the ratio of 52 per cent, your state and your local government will get the balance. N1 billion could build 10 medical facilities in those states. That is the impact and power that you have.” “”I am sure you wont allow those not paying taxes to go scot free “Before FIRS voted for lien on bank accounts of defaulting taxpayers, the Service granted a waiver of penalty and interest for three years (2013-2015), followed by the Voluntary Assets Income Declaration Scheme, VAIDS. It was when millionaire and billionaire taxpayers with turnover of between N11 million and N1 billion did not take the opportunity to pay their taxes, that FIRS decided to place lien on the accounts of defaulting taxpayers “All defaulting taxpayers were considered, provided that such taxpayers came forward to declare their indebtedness, pay at least 25% of the outstanding amount and present a payment plan on the outstanding tax liability that was acceptable to the Service. This window was opened from 5th October to 24th November, 2016. A total of 2,400 companies took advantage of the window, from which FIRS realized about N98.8 billion. “ The last speakers spoke about integrity and vision in public service. You may have the integrity, you may have the vision, but without the revenue, it remains a dream. Most of us here like to complain about what the government has done and what the government has not done, but even with the best vision and leadership, we still require revenue and the revenue certainly will come from taxes. “The Voluntary Assets Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) commenced on 1st July, 2017 to be run for a period of nine months was formally launched on the 29th of June, 2017 by the then Acting President, H.E. Yemi Osinbajo. VAIDS was an initiative designed to encourage voluntary disclosure of previously undisclosed assets and income for the purpose.

Source: Inside Business

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ICC has published an inaugural issues brief on World Trade Organization negotiations on the trade-related aspects of e-commerce.
The issues brief – the product of extensive consultation with businesses across a range of sectors participating in or affected by the digital economy – will form part of a series of briefs by ICC to assist WTO Member States in their plurilateral negotiations in Geneva. The negotiations, now involving 80 Member States, seek to achieve a high standard outcome that builds on existing WTO agreements and frameworks. The brief, Taxation of Physical Goods in the Context of E-commerce: Avoiding Non-tariff Barriers through Simple and Consistent Design, highlights a growing concern for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprisess (MSMEs) accompanying the impressive growth in the cross-border sale of physical goods purchased online: the propensity for Goods and Services Tax (GST) /Value Added Tax (VAT) regimes to constitute non-tariff barriers to trade unless they are designed in a simple and consistent way. The brief sets out five key recommendations for WTO Members to ensure that their GST/VAT regimes do not hamper e-commerce growth. They are:
Minimise discrimination between domestic and non-domestic businesses in registration requirements and ensure tax systems are technology-neutral in application.
Allow suppliers, where relevant, to collect and remit taxes away from the border.
Maintain or establish appropriate de minimis thresholds, allowing customs agencies to focus on safety and security rather than on domestic tax collection.
Ensure that registration and tax payment processes are simple, consistent and non-discriminatory.
Do not require a place of business or fiscal representative in the country of destination in order to supply goods.

Source: ICC

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The introduction of withholding tax (WHT) provisions in the Nigerian tax laws in 1977, imposed on taxpayers the obligation to deduct tax at source on payments for qualifying transactions. The tax deducted are to be remitted to the relevant tax authority within a statutory timeline, with penalty and interest charges imposed on defaulting taxpayers.
However, the drive by taxpayers to comply with their withholding tax obligations appear impaired by the existence of certain vague provisions in the Nigerian tax laws. Where tax laws are difficult to understand, conflicting interpretations are given to these vague provisions and this may have detrimental effect on a country's tax system, through limited compliance by taxpayers and punitive interpretations by the tax authorities. One key area of contention is the lack of clarity on the Phrase 'sales in the ordinary course of business', which the WHT Regulations issued pursuant to the Companies Income Tax Act and Personal Income Tax Act, have exempted from WHT. While the WHT Regulations lists certain transactions on which tax is to deducted, which include "all types of contracts and agency arrangements, other than sale in the ordinary course of business" (emphasis ours), the WHT Regulations neither defined nor provided any commentary on what constitutes a sale in the ordinary course of business. Recognising the likely impact of this ambiguity on taxpayers' compliance with their WHT obligations, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) attempted to provide some clarity on the phrase via the issuance of WHT Information Circulars in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2009. Although the aim of the Circulars were to provide clarity and correct any ambiguity and misinterpretation with the operation of WHT in Nigeria, its effort to eliminate the controversy on what constitutes "sale in the ordinary course of business" further exacerbated the ambiguity. Taking the 2006 Circular as a case in point, the FIRS modified the provisions of the Regulations to "all types of contract and agency arrangements, other than outright sale and purchase of goods and property in the ordinary course of business". While the introduction of these additional words by the FIRS may have sought to clarify the issue, it appeared to focus more on qualifying the word "sale", rather than explaining the Phrase. Furthermore, the FIRS highlighted in the 2006 Circular that where a manufacturer delivers its normal products to its distributors and dealers for sale; and where a distributor earns income from their trading activities, such transactions are sales in the ordinary course of business and are not liable to WHT. In 2009, the FIRS issued another Circular and further attempted to clarify the ambiguity by subjecting "all types of contracts and agency arrangements" to WHT while deleting the 'sale in the ordinary course of business' exemption. While the modification in the 2009 Circular appears a quick fix, it is instructive to note that the Nigerian Courts have held that FIRS' circulars are merely explanatory notes that do not carry the force of law and cannot modify the provisions of an enacted legislation.

Source: Mondaq

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The new rules, originally set to come into effect from 1 October 2019 and now deferred for 12 months, mark a complete overhaul of the way VAT is payable on building and construction invoices. Under the domestic reverse charge the customer receiving the service will have to pay the VAT owed straight to HMRC instead of paying the supplier if they report under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).
Businesses need to adapt their accounting systems for dealing with VAT and there will be a negative impact on the cashflows for many affected businesses, as they will no longer get VAT payments from customers for services where the reverse charge applies. Some 150,000 businesses in the construction and building sector will be affected by the change. Now HMRC has issued a policy brief stating introduction of the new VAT regime will be delayed for a period of 12 months until 1 October 2020. It says this will give businesses more time to prepare and will also avoid the changes coinciding with Brexit. In July, a Federation of Master Builders (FMB) survey of around 8,000 SME construction firm members found that 69% were not aware of reverse charge VAT at all. Of those who were, 67% have not prepared for the changes, and the industry body warned of potential ‘chaos’ when the new regime started. During the twelve months before the charge now comes in, HMRC says it will focus additional resource on identifying and tackling fraud in the construction sector. It will also work closely with the sector to raise awareness and provide additional guidance and support to make sure all businesses will be ready for the new implementation date. HRMC also said it recognises that some businesses will have already changed their invoices to meet the needs of the reverse charge and cannot easily change them back in time. Where genuine errors have occurred, HMRC will take into account the fact that the implementation date has changed. Those businesses which have opted for monthly VAT returns ahead of the 1 October 2019 implementation date can reverse this by using the appropriate stagger option on the HMRC website. CIOT welcomed the announcement, saying it would lessen the likely flurry of disputes between suppliers and customers as to whether or not VAT should be charged. Linda Skilbeck, vice-chair of CIOT’s indirect taxes sub-committee, said: ‘If the government had pressed ahead with a start this October we envisaged significant confusion amongst businesses, leading to disputes between suppliers and customers as to whether or not VAT should be charged. ‘It would have led to an additional influx of calls to HMRC’s phone lines, while HMRC and its call centres were already busy dealing with the implementation of Making Tax Digital, as well as the consequences of Brexit. ‘A start date of October 2020 is more sensible. This should allow time for a dedicated information campaign to be operated by HMRC, with the assistance of industry and professional bodies. Such a campaign could include direct communications with businesses in the sector, particularly those registered for the Construction Industry Scheme, as well as improvements to the content and accessibility of guidance. ’The delay was also welcomed by Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, who said: ‘With small construction businesses already suffering due to unprecedented uncertainty, slowing growth and rising costs, this was clearly not the right moment to hit them with the reverse charge. ‘Small firms in this sector are already disproportionately impacted by late payments. Roll-out of this change without due care will make a bad situation worse, restricting cashflow and threating the futures of many. ‘It’s also encouraging to see HMRC providing reassurances that those who’ve already changed invoice arrangements in preparation for the change will not be punished as a result of confusion following this late intervention.’ Alison Horner, indirect tax partner at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, said that while the 12-month delay is a welcome relief, it is frustrating for businesses which spent time and money to properly prepare. ‘The worst affected will be those sub-contractors who moved to monthly returns to get ahead of the changes. These sub-contractors will need to reverse their VAT return accounting dates as soon as possible, which HMRC have said they will facilitate,’ said Horner. ‘By remaining on monthly returns sub-contractors may find they have cash flow problems in funding an unexpected VAT payment to HMRC. They are the only ones who need to take immediate action. The rest can breathe a sigh of relief.’

Source: Investor king

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Former Arsenal forward Chuba Akpom has pledged his allegiance to the national team of Nigeria, the country of his parents after playing in the past for England youth teams. Akpom, who has 41 appearances for England youth teams, hopes to team up with his childhood friend Alex Iwobi who also dumped England for Nigeria. Akpom’s switch to the Super Eagles has had a hint of inevitability after he trained with Nigeria’s senior team in March 2017 alongside Ola Aina. “I’ve only just recently switched my allegiance, so I’ve signed the documents and hopefully in the next few weeks it will be approved to enable me play for Nigeria,” Akpom told BBC Sport. “I’ve been wanting to do that for many years now but not many people know this. It’s just been a matter of sorting it out, which is now in a process. I’m looking forward to it. “It was a personal decision. I’m Nigerian and my whole family feel very Nigerian and it will be nice to represent Nigeria. “It will also be nice to link up with Alex [Iwobi] again and play for the national team. We started playing when we was younger together and to make that step to play for the national team together will be amazing.” Akpom thought the switch would have happened earlier when he said in a 2018 interview that he hoped to get called up to the Super Eagles for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. He had just completed a permanent move to Greek side PAOK Salonika. He played a part in PAOK’s domestic double last season and has started this season in good form scoring two goals in four games in the Greek league. “Going to play abroad and in another league has helped me, but I hope to take my career to the next level with Nigeria.” It is unclear if Akpom would have gotten clearance to play for the Super Eagles before the game against Brazil in Singapore on October 13.

Source: Punch

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The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has written to Fifa for an explanation of its missing votes for the Best Fifa Men’s Player award. The EFA says that Pharaohs’ acting coach Shawky Gharib and captain Ahmed Elmohamady placed votes for Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah that were not counted. Neither are included in the voting breakdown on Fifa’s website. Since the awards ceremony, Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah has removed ‘Egypt’ from his Twitter profile. His profile now simply reads: “Footballer for Liverpool FC.” He also posted a Tweet which translates as: “Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed.” Barcelona’s Lionel Messi won the Best Fifa Men’s Player award on Monday night ahead of Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Salah’s Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk. In 2018, Salah came third in the men’s award and also took the Puskas Award for the goal of the season. Each nation has three voters: the national team coach, the national team captain, and a media representative. The EFA says that both Gharib and Elmohamady had Salah as their first choices in their votes. The media representative Hany Danial’s choices were Sadio Mane followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, with Salah in third place. It is not the first time that Salah has been upset with the EFA, following a row last year over the image rights that saw him threaten to quit the national team.

Source: punch

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The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) has written to Fifa for an explanation of its missing votes for the Best Fifa Men’s Player award. The EFA says that Pharaohs’ acting coach Shawky Gharib and captain Ahmed Elmohamady placed votes for Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah that were not counted. Neither are included in the voting breakdown on Fifa’s website. Since the awards ceremony, Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah has removed ‘Egypt’ from his Twitter profile. His profile now simply reads: “Footballer for Liverpool FC.” He also posted a Tweet which translates as: “Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed.” Barcelona’s Lionel Messi won the Best Fifa Men’s Player award on Monday night ahead of Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Salah’s Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk. In 2018, Salah came third in the men’s award and also took the Puskas Award for the goal of the season. Each nation has three voters: the national team coach, the national team captain, and a media representative. The EFA says that both Gharib and Elmohamady had Salah as their first choices in their votes. The media representative Hany Danial’s choices were Sadio Mane followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, with Salah in third place. It is not the first time that Salah has been upset with the EFA, following a row last year over the image rights that saw him threaten to quit the national team.

Source: punch

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The Plateau State Board of Internal Revenue has generated N10. 7 billion between January and July 2019. Dashe Ariat, chairman of the board told journalist that this geometric increase came through a lot of efforts. ” We now meet the tax payers at their doorsteps, not waiting for them to come to us as it used to be. We have also recovered a backlog of revenue not remitted by tax audits and deliberately meeting taxpayers. There have been a lot of payments coming in through recovery.”
“We have had effective collaborations with Ministries like Lands and Survey in April, their IGR has increased also, we are on the move. With the matching order of the governor on June 12, when he emphasised on three pillar policy and with economic rebirth as number three, we felt we cannot sit down and wait but we will work hard to ensure that the revenue surpasses the budget that was declared. N18bn was declared for the State entirely with the Service having N12bn as a component of it. We are already on N10.7bn.” Arlat further disclosed that in order for the target to be met, the state revenue service will be meeting with the tertiary institutions, Jos Metropolitan Development Board, ministry of agric, ministry of lands and survey and other ministries to make collaborative efforts. “There are a lot of gaps that are there and we know that we are not yet able to tap them especially in the transport sector of the economy. There are areas there that many of the owners of commercial transports are not on our searchlight, the drivers are not there as well as penalties for offenders on the road.” “You can see that people park in the town indiscriminately, we have met with the enforcers like the Road Safety and VIO to ensure that everywhere is orderly and by that, any defaulter would be a revenue base for us” he noted. “I am making reference to all sorts of vehicles especially the trucks that come into Jos and go out of Jos. Luxury buses that come into Jos and go out. We discovered that they don’t have parks for us to be able to get revenue. People turn the frontage of their homes to parks, most of the luxury buses going to Lagos and the Eastern part of Nigeria, they don’t have parks that government can hold unto that yes, you have to park here and pay us revenue.” Arlat who said the vehicle owner may be taxed N500 per day or N1000 for parking for more than a day said “We are working on creating parks for them through the Ministry of Transport to ensure that there are parks especially for the trucks which are causing menace to other road users. The drivers park, taking over one lane of the road completely, causing accidents, we have already secure places; Marahaban Ja’ama, Zaria Road, Bauchi Road, the former JIB, there is a very large parking space there. We are removing the trucks to those places, we have met with their union and they have agreed because they have already seen the need for that.” He also said street naming and house numbering will generate revenue as he disclosed that “80% of houses in Jos are not numbered, we don’t even have street names for the streets, we are embarking on streets naming and numbering of houses to ensure that the pay the ground rent adequately. There are also some other revenue that is associated with land issues and property; this year, we are moving in collaboration with all the Ministry to ensure that we get this revenue”.

Source: Business Live

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Nigeria Amputee Football Federation (NAFF) has named Turkey-based Olalekan Sarafadeen and Austin Ugwu as the team’s new Captain and Assistant Captain of the Special Eagles for the forthcoming Cup of Africa Nation for Amputee Football (CANAF). The NAFF national coach, Victor Nwenwe, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that Sarafadeen would replace Emmanuel Ibeawuchi, the longest served captain of the team.He said there was need to rebuild the national team to have a formidable team for CANAF holding in Luanda, Angola, from October 1 to 16. “We are in camp preparing for 2019 CANAF, so there is need to rebuild the national team, and reshuffle the captainship position which we just did.“Ibeawuchi is one of the pioneer footballers and he did well as the longest serving captain of the national team, but we have appointed Sarafadeen as the new captain, while Ugwu will assist him. “It is a unanimous board decision and the footballers are equally aware of the challenges which are necessary at a time like this that we have a major tournament,” he said.The coach noted that the Special Eagles national team would surpass its performance in 2013 edition, where Nigeria finished 4th in the tournament held in Kenya. The Acting Technical Director of NAFF, Pius Asaba, said that Sarafadeen was part of Nigeria’s national team to CANAF tournaments held in Liberia, Ghana, Kenya and 2018 Amputee World Cup in Mexico.Asaba gave names of other members of the national team as Sunday Setonji-Ogunbiyi, Kennedy Ezeji, Chimaobi Michael, Mohammed Grema, Ibrahim Ndako, Kelvin Kingsley, Olayemi Ogidan and Blessing Agu (Goalkeeper). “This team has more experienced players, even the two new ones that joined them have been in the ongoing national camp keyed into the tournament programme,” he added.He revealed that the Special Eagles would make their fourth outing in the Federation of Africa Amputee Football (FAAF) organised tournament, which would feature eight countries on the continent. According to him, the body has proposed September 30 as departures date for the contingent, as their presence would confirm their registration and participation in the competition.The 15-day continental tournament would be used as qualifies for the 2020 Amputee World Cup.

Source: Guardian

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Barring any last minute delay, the Technical Committee of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee (NTPIC) will soon present a Finance Bill and Policy Note to the Minister of Finance and Budget Planning. Indication to this was disclosed at the second sitting of the committee, Tuesday at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Headquarters in Abuja, by the Deputy Chairman of the technical committee, Dr. Bode Oyetude, who said that the sub-committee would finish its work in the next 10 to 15 days.
“This is the second committee meeting we are having and we hope to bring it to a close in the next 10 to 15 days. We are working to put up a finance bill and policy note to the Minister of Finance, that would raise revenue and reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria, deal with some areas of tax inequity, international taxation including profit shifting and base erosion”. At its inauguration, Executive Chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, charged the technical committee to work harmoniously to achieve the desired result. “I charge the Chairman and members of the Technical Committee with the responsibility of accelerating the drafting and submission of a draft Finance Bill (and if deemed necessary, any draft Executive Order (s), to harmonise the various tax and excise law reform efforts. It is our expectation that the Technical Committee will work assiduously over the next few weeks to produce a singular set of fiscal measures that will be considered and approved by the reconstituted NTPIC. Once agreed, these fiscal measures are to be submitted to the Economic Management Team and the Federal Executive Council for approval and ultimate transmission to the National Assembly, for passage into law as part of the efforts to support the 2020 Executive Budget Proposal.” The general committee is headed by Fowler with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Ahmadu Ali, as the Deputy Chairman, while Ambassador Adeolu Dipeolu who is also the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Economic Matters in the Vice President’s Office is the Chairman of the Technical-Sub-Committee.

Source: Sun News

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A few weeks ago, had you spotted Barcelona’s trip to Granada in the La Liga schedule, you might well have predicted the winning team would be topping the table at the end of the evening. You would not have guessed that team would be Granada. But that is exactly what happened, the newly promoted Andalusians gaining a fully deserved 2-0 victory to leave Barca floundering in mid-table, with just seven points from their first five games. It is Barca’s worst start for 25 years, but even more worrying than the result was the performance, as Ernesto Valverde’s men only managed two tame attempts on target while constantly looking vulnerable at the other end. What’s going on? And what will the reigning champions do next? BBC Sport examines a full-blown early-season crisis at the Nou Camp. The first thing to note about Barca’s poor form is that their troubles have been exclusively reserved for away trips. The Nou Camp has remained a near-fortress, with Barca winning their last 12 straight home games and only losing twice on their own patch since Valverde arrived as manager in summer 2017. On the road, though, they have been nothing short of disastrous in recent months, turning in a series of similarly bad performances far too consistently for it to be a mere coincidence. Valverde’s men have now failed to win any of their past eight away games, with Saturday’s loss at Granada following a highly fortunate Champions League draw at Borussia Dortmund, where they only escaped thanks to a series of fine saves from Marc-Andre ter Stegen, wayward Dortmund finishing and the help of the woodwork. After Saturday’s setback manager Valverde admitted: “I’m worried. Away from home we are not getting good results and when that happens a few times, like now, it’s a symptom of not [playing] very well. We are not playing good games.” For a variety of reasons, whenever Barca are away from the comfort blanket of their own surroundings, they look uncomfortable. So what are those reasons? In defence of Valverde and his players, their preparation for the new campaign was far from ideal. Several players missed a large chunk of pre-season because of their participation in the Copa America, while the remaining skeletal squad embarked upon a commercially driven programme of friendlies featuring games on three continents in 13 days. Perhaps as a consequence, they have suffered a series of injuries since the serious action commenced. Skipper Lionel Messi was sidelined before the curtain-raiser at Athletic Bilbao, and there have also been absences for Luis Suarez, Ousmane Dembele, Jordi Alba and Samuel Umtiti. Consequently, Valverde has been repeatedly forced to shuffle his pack and employ several players in a range of positions. New signings Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, for example, have already been lined up in every possible position in the forward line and midfield respectively – hardly beneficial to their settling-in process. Another self-inflicted disruption was the Neymar saga. The club’s unpleasantly public courtship of their opinion-dividing former star, which continued right until Spanish transfer deadline day in early September, was a serious distraction and created a strong impression that the squad is composed of a handful of untouchables alongside a group of players (Dembele, Umtiti, Nelson Semedo, Ivan Rakitic) who would have been happily jettisoned if a part-exchange deal for Neymar had been struck with Paris St-Germain. Messi, in particular, is facing allegations – similar to those he has regularly faced at international level – that he wields too strong an influence over team selection and the general hierarchy, especially given the ongoing starting XI status of his best friend Suarez, despite the Uruguayan’s inconsistent form over the past couple of years. Any excessive power granted to Messi is probably unlooked for, coming rather as a natural side-effect of the unrealistic expectations heaped on his shoulders, but the suggestions add fuel to the idea that the Spanish champions are far from a happy and united camp right now. Despite these hindrances, it’s undeniable that a squad with Barca’s depth and quality should still be more than capable of overcoming opponents like Eibar, Osasuna and Granada. For many observers, the fact they have failed to do so can be blamed fairly and squarely on the tactical approach employed by Valverde, whose position is again coming under serious scrutiny after he somehow survived the chop in the wake of his team’s horrendous collapse at Liverpool in last season’s Champions League semi-final. Valverde has always been accused of being an overly cautious coach, setting up his teams first and foremost to avoid defeat in a manner far removed from the ball-playing principles espoused since the days of Johan Cruyff. For attacking inspiration, according to his critics, he places everything at the feet of Messi. ‘Messidependencia’ by the Spanish press – has been a recurring issue for five or six years, and it is certainly the case that Barca have looked bereft of ideas during his absence in the opening weeks of the season: Griezmann, for example, has not managed a single shot on target during his four away games for the club.

Source: Guardian

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Joshua Kimmich has defended Marc-Andre ter Stegen and the German Football Association (DFB) from Uli Hoeness’ criticism but insists Manuel Neuer is right to be considered the national team’s number one. Bayern Munich president Hoeness hit out at the federation for a perceived failure to support 2014 World Cup winner Neuer in the debate over Germany’s goalkeeper spot. Neuer’s nearest positional rival, Barcelona’s Ter Stegen, had expressed frustration with a lack of international opportunities, which prompted a public exchange between the pair. The Bayern star sought to quell the tension last week and club team-mate Kimmich joined him in smoothing over relations as he sympathised with Ter Stegen. “There was nothing bad about what Marc said,” Kimmich told German broadcaster ZDF. “He didn’t attack Manuel or anyone else, he just said he was disappointed. I can understand that. I don’t know what he was told or promised. “There is no question about who is in goal, Manuel is rightly the number one, although Marc has delivered world-class performances for many years. Healthy competition is a good thing.” Neuer regained his place for Germany at last year’s World Cup in Russia after missing almost the entire 2017-18 season because of a recurring foot injury. The 33-year-old has since started each of Die Mannschaft’s six games in 2019 and performed well in Bayern’s comfortable 4-0 Bundesliga victory over Cologne on Saturday. “I think the DFB and especially our coach, Joachim Low, stuck by Manuel during a difficult phase,” Kimmich said. “He was injured for a long time and still stood in goal at the World Cup. From a DFB perspective, Manuel was always the clear number one.”

Source: Punch

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National Assembly Joint Committee has raised concern over Federal Inland Revenue Service’s (FIRS) 2019 projected estimate of non oil revenue tax collection of N146.54 billion. The Co-chairman of the committee, Sen. John Enoh and other members of the committee raised the concern at FIRS’s budget defence in Abuja on Monday.
The committee sought to know why the 2018 approved estimate was N153.85 while the 2019 projected cost stood at N146.54 amounting to 4.75 per cent decrease. On personnel cost, the committee asked why the service was proposing 14.6 per cent increase in number of staff from 7, 854 in 2018 to 9000 staff in 2019. It equally demanded explanation to the “proposed N160 million meant to sew drivers’ uniforms, N825 million for refreshment and security vote of N250 million among others. The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler while presenting the budget proposal, noted that the proposed increase in staff strength was due to recruitment of staff scheduled in 2019. He further explained that N160 million was earmarked to sew uniforms for the 850 drivers of the service as part of effort to make them fit properly into the structure. Also, he said the amount earmarked for security vote was meant to attend to some security issues, particularly those not receipted for. “The achievement of 2019 budget will be driven by increase oil and non-oil revenue tax collection. The service in realisation of this responsibility and challenges of doing manual collection will continue to implement automated tax collection for the critical sectors of the economy notably telecommunications, airlines and financial institutions. The deployment of these platforms is at no cost to the service and the consultants will only be rewarded on increased revenue generation. “There will be increased enforcement activities nationwide to bring more tax payers into the tax net and increase compliance level,’’ Fowler said.

Source: Business News

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Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, has continued to make very fundamental statements by words and actions that the most important legacy for any leader is to inspire confidence and trust in his appointees that they have the capacity to deliver services to the people. El -Rufai, is undoubtedly an apostle of C. Everett Koop, a key proponent of the school of thought that believes that “Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.”
Precisely what El-Rufai in the last five years has been doing – imbibing in Kaduna State youths – male and female – the sense of responsibility and independence to excel in public service. It’s to El-Rufai’s credit that no young person from the state can hide behind the banner of “no opportunity” because the reality is that he has over patronized them. El- Rufai’s singular ambition is to internally generate annually a minimum of N70b that would cover wages and administrative costs without having to wait for the “miserable” allocation from the Federation Account which hardly covers salaries and leaving absolutely nothing for infrastructural development. All indications point to the realization of the objective as the Kaduna State Internal Service (KADIRS) has consistently been generating well over N2billion from the paltry N600 million a month that was standard during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations. Key to the successes recorded in increasing the IGR are the reforms embarked by El-Rufai which frontally attacked leakages, made cash collection a crime and the revenue service the sole collecting and accounting authority, though all taxes and fees continue to be assessed by the relevant ministries and agencies. By December 2014 the Nigerian economy was already in decline and the revenue projections were not looking good. And because the oil revenues, the major foreign exchange earner, was projected to remain much lower than the 2011-2014 boom levels, there was the urgent need to tackle the looming crisis. The situation was further worsened by the lack of any significant increase in non-oil revenues. The implication was that the accruing revenue was grossly inadequate to provide essential public services and drive infrastructural development. The options included addressing recurrent expenditure, especially the high number of political appointees, issue of “ghost” workers – which Kaduna State implemented by reducing the number of ministries and an aggressive IGR drive. In 2015 when El – Rufai assumed office, he had two stark options – to either reform or perish, because government revenues were already beginning to decline due to low demand for crude oil, Nigeria’s major foreign exchange earner. Thankfully the governor chose the path of reforms, making Kaduna State the only state that wasn’t prodded by the federal government into embarking on long overdue reforms. The 22-point fiscal sustainability plan(FSP) put in place by the federal government was an added impetus, because by 2015 most state governments faced crunching fiscal crisis that compelled the federal government to offer them financial assistance (bailouts) and to introduce the FSP, which entailed the restructuring of existing short-term commercial bank loans into longer-term state bonds which it guaranteed soft loans from CBN and Excess Crude Account-backed loans. Working with Ifueko Omoigui, one-time Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), El-Rufai embarked on a radical restructuring of the Kaduna State Revenue Board into a service capable of effectively raising the much needed finances for the myriads of projects he has on his table. To give legal backing to the reforms, the Kaduna State Tax (Codification & Consolidation) Law, 2016 was signed into law and ushered in a new era in tax administration in Kaduna State. The key highlights of the law include making Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service the sole revenue collection agency, harmonization and centralization of all revenue collection and the prohibition of cash collection. The blockage of leakages was the killer punch and in no time the desired results started rolling in, such that by 2017 the revenue had increased from N11.8billion in 2015 to N26.53billion and to N30billion by 2018.The half year results(January to June) for 2019 looks impressive. Mukhtar Ahmed, the pioneer chairman has no doubt laid a solid foundation but there are still some challenges that must be addressed for the service to attain the desired level. And the man on whose very lean shoulders El – Rufai has placed this huge responsibility on is 35 years old Zaid Abubakar, a 2008 graduate of Accounting from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Abubakar comes with impressive credentials that include a Ph.D. in Accounting from the Al-Madina International University (MEDIU) Malaysia. Nasir El – Rufai deserves huge commendation for his courageous decision to entrust the KADIRS to Abubakar whose work experience shows that he has the capacity to manage the service.

Source: daily trust

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Nigeria is using a system of tax credits to encourage private companies to share the cost of infrastructure projects as part of a drive to diversify Africa’s biggest economy away from its reliance on oil sales, the country’s tax chief said. Executive Chairman of Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Tunde Fowler speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in Abuja, Nigeria, September 21, 2016.
Tunde Fowler, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), said in an interview on Wednesday that more than 10 local companies had applied for the scheme to receive 50% of expenditure in tax credits. He also said Nigeria had a target to nearly double tax revenues this year from 2018 due to a surge of new payers following the end of an amnesty and the introduction of a new database that uses biometric data. Africa’s biggest oil producing country has sought to diversify its economy away from crude sales, but has struggled to improve non-oil revenues as debt servicing costs rise. And after Nigeria signed up to a new continent-wide free trade agreement in July, manufacturers have called for improvements to road, rail and power networks to compete with firms from across Africa. Fowler said two companies had successfully applied to receive tax credits for infrastructure projects so far. One was part of the Dangote Group conglomerate, owned by the continent’s richest man Aliko Dangote, which will build a road under the scheme. He did not name the other company. “It may reduce the amount of my collections initially, but ... as I expand my tax net, I would make up for that reduction,” said Fowler. “We believe we would generate more revenues from the additional infrastructure that would be created.” The tax credit scheme was signed into law, under an executive order, by President Muhammadu Buhari in January. Buhari was elected for a second term in February, in part due to his vow to develop the country’s poor infrastructure that has stymied development for decades. But he faces a challenge amid rising debt servicing costs. Nigeria spent 35% of government revenues servicing debt in 2016, when its economy entered a recession that it left the following year. Since then, it has taken on more local and foreign debt. Economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 1.94% in the second quarter of this year, the statistics office said on Tuesday. The non-oil sector grew 1.64% and the oil sector 5.15%, though crude prices have fallen since then. Fowler said 5.32 trillion naira ($17.39 billion) was collected in taxes in 2018 and his office was targeting 8.9 trillion naira this year. He said the increase was possible because the number of tax payers was expected to jump to around 45 million this year from 20 million in 2018. That was largely due to the inclusion of people identified in a tax amnesty that ended this year. Fowler said that change, coupled with a new database drawing on biometric data tied to bank accounts, had led to an improvement in compliance and collections in the first eight months of this year. But Fowler’s targets, which he described as “ambitious”, may be hard to meet in a country of 190 million people where around 80% of the workforce is employed in the informal sector. That has hindered tax collection in the past. Fowler, speaking at his office in the capital, Abuja, said a move to include value added tax (VAT) on all online transactions was expected to come into force in January 2020. He said e-commerce was, at present, a tax loophole. “There are a lot of areas that are not yet captured,” he said. Fowler added the current VAT rate of 5%, one of the lowest in the world, should be raised. “I believe that Nigeria should review the VAT rate to 7.5%,” he said, though any such change would have to be implemented by the government.

Source: Punch

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Online rental giant Airbnb has renewed calls for capital gains tax reform to better promote a "fair go", in an appeal to the Morrison government's commitment to aspiration. Airbnb said expats living overseas are allowed to rent out properties full time for years, but Airbnb hosts risked losing the capital gains tax exemption that applies to family homes for sharing a room for a single night.
"The ‘fair go’ is the Morrison government’s north star, and it should consider redressing this tax on aspiration," said Airbnb Asia Pacific regional policy director Brent Thomas. In 2017, a Board of Taxation report on tax and the sharing economy recommended the government consult on simplifying tax rules for the sale of properties used "to produce small amounts of income”. Owners could rent out their primary home for "a designated proportion of time" without losing the tax exemption under the plan. "Across the country scores of everyday Australians and families are having a go and becoming hospitality entrepreneurs," Mr Thomas said. "Hosting on Airbnb helps local families earn extra income to ease the cost-of-living or pay the mortgage but at present parts of the tax system penalise – rather than promote – aspiration." The Institute of Public Accountants' Tony Greco said the problem was a common occurrence as the popularity of online sharing grew. "Most people plead ignorance when it comes to acknowledging that the usually exempt family home may be subject to capital gains tax if they have rented it out, especially if it is just one room in the house. "The treatment seems harsh when you can rent your home out for up to six years and not lose the main residence exemption." He said a minor exemption wouldn't cost the government much due to low levels of compliance. TaxBanter senior trainer Robyn Jacobson said it was a common misconception that if someone rented their home on Airbnb for a few days or weeks they can utilise the six-year absence rule and pay no tax when they sell their home. "The absence rule is available only if the dwelling ceases to be the main residence of the taxpayer; this means they have to cease living there, move out, remove their personal belongings, change their details on the electoral role, change address for utility notices," she said. "In the case of someone who only vacates for a few weeks but leaves all their belongings there, and doesn’t change driver's licence, electoral role, utilities, the six-year absence rule is not available. Instead, the taxpayer has to prorate the days it was rented and treat these days as taxable when they calculate the capital gain. Accordingly, only a partial main residence exemption will be available." She said for tax assessment and deductions, Airbnb was no different to renting through a real estate agent.

Source: punch

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The Technical Committee of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee will soon present a bill to the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, that will harmonise all taxes to enhance ease of doing business in the country. The Deputy Chairman of the committee, Dr Bode Oyetunde, said this during the second meeting of the group, held at the head office of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Oyetunde said that the sub-committee would finish its work in the next 10 to 15 days, adding that the bill would lead to an increase the country’s revenue. The bill when approved by the finance minister would be sent to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and approval before it would be forwarded to the National Assembly for legislative scrutiny. Oyetunde said the bill when approved would also assist the Federal Government in reducing the cost of doing business in the country. He said the bill, when passed into law by the National Assembly, would also deal with some areas of tax inequity, as well as address some grey areas in international taxation such as profit shifting and base erosion. Base erosion and profit shifting refers to corporate tax planning strategies used by multinationals to move profits from higher tax jurisdictions to lower tax jurisdictions, thus eroding the tax base of the higher tax jurisdictions. He said, “We are working to put up a finance bill and policy note to the minister of finance that will raise revenue and reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria; deal with some areas of tax inequity; deal with some areas in international taxation like profit shifting and base erosion.” The general committee is headed by the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, while the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, is the deputy chairman. The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Economic Matters in Vice President’s Office, Adeolu Dipeolu, is the chairman of the technical sub-committee. Fowler had during the inauguration of the technical sub-committee charged members to work harmoniously to achieve the desired results.

Source: Punch

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Within an eight-year period covering 2011 and 2018, the country earned a total of N35.56tn as tax revenue, statistics obtained from the Federal Inland Revenue Service have revealed. An analysis of the tax revenue statistics showed that the tax income was earned in two major tax revenue items.
They are oil tax which is generated through the Petroleum Profit Tax and non-oil tax which is generated from seven tax revenue components. They are Company Income Tax, Gas Income, Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duty, Value Added Tax, Education Tax and Nigeria Information Technology Development Fund. An analysis of the N35.56tn tax collection showed that about N17.97tn was earned during the eight-year period from Petroleum Profit Tax. This represents about 50.53 per cent of the entire revenue generated during the eight-year period. From non-oil tax, the federation earned about N17.59tn which is about 49.47 per cent of the tax revenue for the period under review. Further analysis of the non-oil tax revenue showed that a huge chunk of the collection was made through Companies Income Tax. Revenue from this tax component during the period was estimated at N8.75tn representing about 49.74per cent of the non-oil revenue tax collections. This was followed by VAT revenue collection with N6.68tn. The revenue from VAT accounted for 37.98 per cent of the N17.59 non-oil revenue. From education tax, N1.58tn was collected, accounting for about 8.98 per cent of the total non-oil revenue. Other collections were gas income N256.5bn which accounted for about 3.15 per cent of non-oil tax revenue, Capital Gains Tax N174.5bn, Stamp Duty N78.18bn and National Information Technology Development Fund N74.51bn. Further analysis of the tax revenue for the eight-year period showed that the sum of N4.63tn was earned in 2011 while 2012, 2013, and 2014 fiscal periods recorded tax revenue of N5.01tn, N4.81tn and N4.71tn respectively. The nation earned N3.74tn in 2015; N3.31tn in 2016 and N4.03tn in 2017 while 2018 recorded tax collection of N5.32tn. Findings showed that since 2016, non-oil tax collection had been on a steady rise owing to a combination of measures adopted by the government to boost tax collection. It was gathered that the FIRS came up with various technology-driven initiatives aimed at increasing the number of taxpayers, and reducing taxpayers’ burden by making tax payment more convenient. Some of them included the integration of the FIRS portal with the Corporate Affairs Commission. This, it was learnt, had been able to reduce the process of stamp duty payment from three days to just few hours. Other initiatives were the deployment of electronic payment channels for registration, filing, payment, receipt and tax clearance certificate to facilitate easy remittance of taxes by taxpayers. The service also came up with information exchange for third party databases which was implemented in collaboration with government agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service and the Corporate Affairs Commission among others. Since the implementation of the reforms, the number of registered tax payers had increased from 10 million in 2015 to about 19 million in 2018 with the figure estimated to hit 45 million tax payers soon. The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Babatunde Fowler, had said that the service would this year surpass the N5.3tn revenue generated in the 2018 fiscal period. Fowler said that the service had embarked on series of reforms aimed at making it easier for taxpayers to pay their taxes. He said that the reforms had started yielding results as the service was able to generate its highest ever tax revenue in 2018. The FIRS boss explained that while huge revenue could be generated from oil; such revenue was not sustainable due to the volatile nature of crude oil prices. Fowler said that the government recognised the importance of non-oil revenue to economic development, adding that this was why the service was being positioned to generate adequate tax revenue for distribution by the three tiers of government. He said, “We did record some improvements last year as we made the sum of N5.3tn which is the highest in the history of the service. “But it’s not about the money but on what it can do. Many people believe that if we are generating so much money, then the Federal Government budget has no problem being funded.

Source: Punch

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