₦airaland Forum

Mario Balotelli said he was “in great shape” as he prepares to return to Serie A on Tuesday with his first game for his hometown club Brescia against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Italian champions Juventus. “Mario will be there Tuesday,” confirmed coach Eugenio Corini of the Italian striker whose debut was delayed by a four-game suspension for a red card while playing for former club Marseille. The 29-year-old has been getting fit during that time as he looks to impress Italy coach Roberto Mancini and earn a spot in the Euro 2020 team. “My objective is to play for Italy at the Euros, but my main aim right now is to get into shape as quickly as possible for Brescia,” Balotelli told DAZN. It will be Balotelli’s third time playing in Italy after Inter Milan and AC Milan. “I’ve worked harder in the last month and a half than in a decade,” continued the former Liverpool striker. “I’m ready. I’ve only played two friendlies, and have not played 90 minutes, but I am in great shape. The last time I was at this weight, I was at Manchester City.” Balotelli, who has 36 caps for Italy, has not crossed paths with Ronaldo in a decade since the Portuguese star was playing for Manchester United. But he insisted: “Ronaldo’s presence doesn’t really interest me. I’ll try to score and play the way I will in any game.” The Italian won three Serie A titles with Inter Milan and the Champions League in 2010 before moving to Manchester City where he won the Premier League title in 2012. Brescia were promoted to Serie A this year, after being relegated in 2011, and are 11th in Serie A after two wins in four games. Juventus are trailing leaders Inter Milan by two points, as new coach Maurizio Sarri continues to experiment with the eight-time reigning champions. Inter Milan push for their fifth win against Lazio in the San Siro, after their derby success over AC Milan, with the Romans looking to build on their win over Parma. Napoli, in third, host Cagliari with AS Roma hosting Atalanta. At the bottom of the table Fiorentina chase their first win against Sampdoria who moved ahead of the Tuscans after beating Torino for their first points this season. Torino want to avoid a third consecutive league defeat at home against AC Milan, who are 12th.

Source: guardian

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Introduction
Arguably, the most basic principles in business are minimising cost and maximising profit. Thus, it is not unnatural that businesses would seek to reduce their expenses to the barest minimum. Conversely, the tax authorities have the responsibility of ensuring that businesses pay their taxes in accordance with the tax laws.
Businesses sometimes incur punitive payments for default or violation of laws in the conduct of their businesses – commonly in the form of fines and penalties, and these punitive payments are sometimes substantial. It is likely that a business which has incurred substantial punitive payments would expect to treat such payments as deductible expenses in ascertaining its taxable profit. However, a pertinent issue is whether such punitive payments are tax-deductible. Are Punitive Payments Tax-deductible? The taxman recognises the need to allow room for businesses to thrive. As such, provisions are often made to allow the businesses pay taxes on only actual profits and not all incomes of the businesses. Thus, certain business expenses are deductible before the net income is taxed. These deductions are often referred to as "allowable deductions," while the part of the income to be taxed thereafter is referred to as the "taxable profit" or "chargeable profit." The expenses that are tax-deductible are spelt out in section 24 of the Companies' Income Tax Act[1] ("CITA", which is the primary statute on the taxation of companies doing business in Nigeria. The section lists tax-deductible expenses of a business to include expenses incurred during the applicable period wholly, exclusively, necessarily, and reasonably for the purposes of such business.[2] It would therefore appear that the tax authorities do not recognise such punitive payments as tax-deductible expenses and this is notwithstanding a general reluctance of businesses to pay tax on punitive payments like fines and penalties. The rationale for this may be that such expenses are avoidable in the realisation of the company's profits for the relevant year of assessment. Furthermore, punitive payments are by nature incurred only because the company defaulted or violated some law and as such, can hardly be said to have been incurred "necessarily" for the realisation of the profits of the company. The deductibility of punitive payments in determining taxable profit, came up for determination in Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) V. The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC).[3] In that case, the Respondent (SPDC) had made tax deductions on amounts incurred for gas flaring in its tax returns. The Appellant (FIRS) contended that the deductions were penalties for gas flaring and therefore were not allowable deductions. Although the Court held that the payments were punitive payments, it decided that that such fees for gas flaring are not expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for petroleum operations as envisaged under section 10 of the Petroleum Profits Tax Act.[4] Consequently, SPDC was not entitled to make tax deductions of the sums incurred. A more recent case is that between MTN Nigeria Plc (MTN) and the FIRS, arising out of a N330 billion fine paid by MTN Nigeria Plc for failing to deactivate more than 5 million unregistered SIM cards as required by the Nigerian Communications Commission. In filing its returns, MTN treated the N330 billion fine as an allowable deduction and therefore did not account for it as part of its taxable profit. However, the FIRS disagreed with MTN on the deductibility of the fines in arriving at the taxable profit, and imposed tax on the fine. Dissatisfied with the FIRS' assessment, MTN has approached the Tax Appeal Tribunal (the "TAT" to determine the treatment of the fine as a tax-deductible expense. The matter is still pending before the TAT as at the time of this article.
Conclusion: It would be interesting to see how the TAT decides the MTN Nigeria appeal before it. At the moment, the decision of the Federal High Court ("the FHC" in Federal Inland Revenue Service v. The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd[5] which disallowed the tax-deductibility of punitive payments, may be considered binding on the TAT being an inferior court to the FHC, unless the TAT is able to distinguish the two cases. Whichever direction the TAT takes in deciding the MTN Nigeria appeal, it would be important for the jurisprudence on deductibility of punitive payments as allowable expenses. Also, given the value of the sum in dispute – N330 billion, there is a good chance that any aggrieved party will appeal the decision until it gets to the Supreme Court.

Source: Mondaq

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has said its forthcoming conference will focus on Nigeria’s growth and sustainable development. ICAN said in a statement that eminent personalities would converge on Abuja next week for its 47th Annual Accountants’ Conference, with the theme ‘Building Nigeria for Sustainable Growth and Development’.
It said the theme was specifically chosen to evolve ways to strengthen institutional framework to support government’s anti-corruption drive and to chart a new strategy to overcome security and infrastructural challenges in the country. The institute said the lead paper, titled ‘Strengthening Institutional Framework to Support Anti-Corruption Drive’, would be delivered by the Kenyan anti-corruption czar, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, who would provide an insight into some of the key global trends and reforms aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability in state and economic institutions. According to the statement, the second paper, ‘Disruptive Innovations: Challenges and Opportunities in the Accounting Profession’, hopes to dissect innovative technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning, block chain, data analytics, as the greatest disruptor of the accounting profession in this age. ICAN noted that the Federal Inland Revenue Service recently issued letters of substitution to commercial banks in Nigeria, appointing them as tax-collecting agents for certain listed customers maintaining accounts with such banks. It said the third paper, ‘The FIRS Power of Substitution: Critical Review and Matters Arising’, would review the legality or otherwise of the substitution powers of the FIRS to appoint banks as collecting agents and whether the FIRS has the power to instruct banks to freeze the account of tax defaulters. The institute said a paper would also be presented on public accountability as a driver of transparent leadership and governance. It said the paper would discuss issues bordering on accountability and proffer suggestions for improved public accountability to stimulate transparent leadership and governance in the country. According to the statement, the conference will offer a platform for experts and professionals to rub minds on how to make accountability the watchword in governance and financial transactions.

Source: Punch

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HMRC opened investigations into almost one in four of the 22,000 estates on which IHT was due in the 2018-2019 tax year, according to a freedom of information request submitted by wealth advisors Quilter. Some 5,537 IHT returns were investigated in the tax year. The number of investigations has grown by 7.8% following the introduction of the (far from simple) Residence Nil Rate Band.
Gordon Andrews, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, said that "Over the past number of years politicians have been keen to show they are cracking down on tax-dodgers and IHT is one of the departments that HMRC has been throwing its resources at". He added "More often than not, people aren't deliberately trying to defraud HMRC and given the current complexity of the IHT system it's really no surprise if things go awry ... this is absurd at best and perverse at worst as it is essentially penalising people for appropriate tax planning." This shows how important it is to seek advice from a specialist who will know what HMRC are likely to see as triggers and how to pre-empt questions as far as possible to avoid, or mitigate, the costs involved in any investigation.

Source: Mondaq

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More than 81 per cent of taxable adults and businesses in Nigeria do not pay their income taxes due to low tax moral in the country.
The Research Director of the Fiscal Policy Roundtable of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Mr Tayo Oyedele, disclosed this in a presentation during a courtesy call on the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr Asishana Okauru. Oyedele was in the company with the Chairman of the Fiscal Policy Roundtable, Dr Sarah Alade, to solicit an opportunity to expose this sour point to the governors in order to seek their involvement to correct the ills that were denying the country of its collectible revenues.

Source: Punch

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The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it would impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on online transactions, local and international, with effective from January 2020. The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler, disclosed this at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) Technical Workshop on VAT on Monday August 26, 2019 in Abuja.
He said many countries had identified Nigeria as a good market for online businesses, so FIRS would explore the potential of generating revenue from online business transactions. Mr Fowler explained that “VAT remains the cash cow in most African countries, with an average VAT-to-total tax revenue rate of 31 percent,” arguing that the statistics was a validation of the need for Nigeria to streamline the administration of this tax. He added that VAT revenue was shared in the ratio of 15 percent to the Federal Government, 50 percent to state governments and 35 percent to local governments. In May 2018, FIRS wrote to all commercial banks requesting for a list of companies, partnerships and enterprises with a banking turnover of N1 billion and above. This, the Revenue boss said, was aimed at ascertaining those companies that are compliant with the tax laws and those that are not. Fowler, who is also the chairman of ATAF, said that the African tax outlook prompts questions such as “Why does VAT contribute 51 percent to total tax revenue in Senegal but only 17 per cent in Nigeria? Why is the ratio on VAT refunds at 49 percent in Zambia, but only one percent in The Gambia?” He, therefore, charged participants at the workshop to find answers to the questions and address the gaps in their countries to improve VAT collection. Except for a Nigerian who does not operate a bank account, there already exist too many charges on online transactions. Some of such existing charges include, N52 for every fund transfer using a mobile application; N105 for every bill paid online to, for instance, subscribe to satellite television or prepaid electricity bill. There is also another N50 Stamp Duty charged on transactions. Also, banks make deductions from customers’ accounts in the name of monthly Account Maintenance. There is also N2.50 VAT deduction from customers’ accounts for using Point of Sale (POS) machines to make payments. Therefore, there are already multiple deductions from the bank accounts of Nigerians for online transactions. This gives the impression that it is an offence for Nigerians to use online platforms for transactions. The introduction of new VATs will amount to excessive burden on Nigerians who, given the several online charges they pay, are already overtaxed. Recently, issues were raised about the fact that Stamp Duty deductions from bank accounts of Nigerians for online transactions had not been properly accounted for. Since the collection began a couple of years ago, the amount generated from Stamp Duty has not transparently featured as part of the country’s revenue. When put together what has been generated is enough to fund a substantial part of Nigeria’s annual budget. For Nigerians who are on salary, the proposed VAT is another layer of burden. They pay income tax from their salaries; banks make the deductions mentioned above for transactions from their bank accounts, and this is happening at a time when the value of the Naira against the Dollar is very weak, inflation is at double digits, and the economy is contracting instead of expanding. Apparently, the ordinary Nigerian is being squeezed to an unbearable point. Even self-employed youths who are struggling to make a living from online businesses will be at a highly competitive disadvantage with other offline marketers and business owners. Instead of placing more burden on Nigerians, we call FIRS to shelve the fresh VAT on online transactions, and rather concentrate on reining in wealthy Nigerians who pay little or no tax.

Source: daily trust

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Tottenham failed to get off to a winning start in the Champions League as last season’s finalists let a 2-0 lead slip to draw 2-2 with Olympiakos in Greece on Wednesday. Despite a slow start, two goals in four minutes from Harry Kane and Lucas Moura put Spurs on course for vital win in group B. Olympiakos fought back and are now unbeaten in their last 18 games in all competitions stretching back to February. They were well worthy of at least a point as Daniel Podence and Mathieu Valbuena struck either side of half-time. A point away in front of a passionate crowd in Piraeus is not a disastrous start for Mauricio Pochettino’s men, who took just one point from their opening three group games last season before an improbable run to the final. There will be concern that Spurs have won just two of their opening six games this season and face the might of Bayern Munich next in the Champions League. Olympiakos started brightly. Podence forced Hugo Lloris into the first save of the game inside 10 minutes. The hosts came even closer moments later when Miguel Angel Guerrero struck the inside of the post and Guilherme’s follow-up effort bounced over the bar. Pochettino left out Son Heung-min from the starting lineup even though the South Korean scored twice in a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, which the Argentine recognised was by a distance his side’s best performance of the season so far. The visitors’ missed Son’s energy and goal threat early on, but were gifted the lead when Kane was needlessly taken out by Yassine Meriah. Kane saw a rare penalty saved on international duty last week, but the England captain made no mistake from the spot for his 15th goal in 20 Champions League appearances. Four minutes later the points seemed destined to head back to London when Lucas collected Ben Davies’s pass and fired home from outside the box to double Tottenham’s advantage. Pochettino’s men, who blew a 2-0 lead away to Arsenal last month, allowed Olympiakos a lifeline just before the break. Podence played a lovely one-two with Valbuena, before giving Lloris no chance with a smart finish in the bottom corner. Tottenham thought they had restored their two-goal lead when Dele Alli found the net early in the second-half, but the England midfielder was rightly flagged offside. Instead, Olympiakos went down the other end and levelled. Former veteran former French international Valbuena was clipped by Jan Vertonghen and dispatched the resulting penalty to give the Greeks belief that a big upset was on. After the 34-year-old Valbuena was replaced for fresher legs, it was the English side that looked the likelier winners in the final half hour. Jose Sa made a great save to deny Alli his first goal since January and then also stood up to Erik Lamela’s near post blast with Kane left begging for a pass that could have left him with a tap in.

Source: Punch

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Carlo Ancelotti insisted that there was no sense of “euphoria” after beating Champions League holders Liverpool 2-0 in the opening match of the campaign. Dries Mertens and Fernando Llorente scored late as Liverpool fell in their Group E game in the San Paolo Stadium on Tuesday night. “Euphoria at what? We won the first match, it was a good test and we come out of this match aware that this team can do well,” said Ancelotti. “It was just one victory, but yes it has given us confidence, being able to match Liverpool is impressive as for me they are the best team in Europe at the moment. “It’s proven that this team can perform very well, dig in and make sacrifices.” Ancelotti has started his second season at Napoli with the Italians going out in the group stage last year after losing to Liverpool at Anfield, having beaten Klopp’s side beforehand in Naples. “We brought in important players who improved the quality of the squad and have different characteristics to what we had before,” said the 60-year-old, whose side are fourth in Serie A. The three-time Champions League winning-coach — twice with AC Milan and once with Real Madrid — said his focus was just on getting out of the group stage. “I thank (Liverpool coach Jurgen) Klopp for saying we can win this competition,” said the Italian, “but it’s a long way to go. Now we must think about progressing to the knockout stages.” Belgian Mertens added: “We beat Liverpool a year ago as well, it counts for nothing if we don’t do well in the next matches.” Napoli next plays Belgian side Genk on October 2, followed by a trip to Salzburg, before visiting Anfield on November 27.

Source: Punch

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Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published Nigeria’s H1-19 Value Added Tax (VAT) report. According to the report, VAT revenue rose 12.0% y/y to N600.9bn, in H1-19. This as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) continues to double efforts to increase tax revenue, amid FG’s dwindling and volatile oil revenue.
Recent comments from the FIRS chairman on the introduction of VAT charges on online transactions by January 2020, showed that VAT is at the centre of the tax revenue drive. While we await official circulars from the FIRS, the agency had since clarified that only online businesses that do not currently pay VAT are liable. With the above in mind, we see this as a low-hanging fruit that would help shore up government revenue going forward. Also, if properly implemented, we do not expect this to worsen the progress already witnessed on online payment, as VAT is also paid on cash transactions. However, with 18 of 28 sectorial classifications contributing below 1.0% each to aggregate VAT generated in H1-19, the need to boost productivity across the economy comes to fore. Beyond VAT, mobilizing tax revenue in Nigeria is also hinged on finding a way to capture Nigeria’s massive informal sector where the contribution to the tax basket has been largely sub-optimal while doubling down on efforts to clamp down on tax evaders.

Source: Brandspur

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Valencia put a week of turmoil behind them to beat Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in Frank Lampard’s first Champions League game in charge of the Blues on Tuesday. Chelsea dominated possession, but were toothless in attack after losing promising midfielder Mason Mount to an early injury and were punished 16 minutes from time when Rodrigo grabbed all three points for the Spaniards. Lampard’s men should still have rescued a point, but Ross Barkley fired a late penalty over the bar. Valencia had arrived in London still reeling from the unpopular sacking of coach Marcelino last week, who had led the club to two top-four finishes in La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season in his two seasons in charge. Los Che were also thrashed 5-2 by Barcelona in Albert Celades’s first game in charge on Saturday, but bounced back with a solid if unspectacular performance that was still good enough to beat a Chelsea side that badly missed the imagination of the departed Eden Hazard. Lampard has had a rocky start on his return to Stamford Bridge, but enjoyed his best result of his short time in charge with a 5-2 win at Wolves at the weekend. Tammy Abraham scored a hat-trick in that match to take his tally to seven goals in his last three Premier League games and threatened to carry that form into his first Champions League appearance early on. Abraham was denied by Jasper Cillessen as he tried to force home Cesar Azpilicueta’s dangerous near-post cross inside the first 10 minutes, but Chelsea’s early momentum was soon halted by an injury blow to the other young star of their season so far.
Coquelin lucky
Francis Coquelin was lucky to escape with just a yellow card for a dangerous lunge on Mount, that forced the England international off with an ankle injury. Without the creative quality of Mount, the hosts were reliant on moments of magic from Willian to open up an organised if unambitious Valencia. The Brazilian just lacked the finish after chesting down Mateo Kovacic’s fine pass over the top of the Valencia defence as he blazed well over. Former Barca ‘keeper Cillessen had been heavily criticised for his performance upon his return to the Camp Nou on Saturday, but came to his side’s rescue again in first-half stoppage time when this time a fierce volleyed effort from Willian found the target. Despite Chelsea’s obvious defensive weaknesses in conceding 11 times in their opening five Premier League games of the season, Valencia were happy to contain and counter-attack. But the visitors made their mark from set-pieces. Firstly, Kevin Gameiro fired over from a well-worked corner when picked out by Dani Parejo. However, Rodrigo made no such mistake after another pinpoint delivery from a Parejo free-kick as his shot into the ground bounced up and beyond Kepa Arrizabalaga. The goal arrived just seconds after Lampard had introduced a second striker in Olivier Giroud as he chased all three points. Giroud fired too close to Cillessen moments later as Chelsea went in search of an equaliser. And they were given a golden opportunity when Daniel Wass was harshly penalised for a handball after a lengthy delay for referee Cuneyt Cakir to consult replays four minutes from time. However, no damage was done to Valencia as Barkley’s penalty hit the bar on its way over to condemn Chelsea to the worst possible start in Group H.

Source: Punch

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Traders at the Abakpa Main Market, Abakaliki, have denied the allegation of tax evasion of levelled against them by officials of the Ebonyi State Government as the reason for invading the market and compliance. The traders spoke at a press conference in Abakaliki on Friday and urged the public to discountenance the allegation of tax evasion by the government.
Southern City News recalls that violence erupted between the government officials and the traders when revenue agents forced their way into the market to enforce payment compliance. Mr Pius Mbam, who spoke on behalf of the group, said that traders at the market were law-abiding and always paid their taxes and other government approved revenues promptly. He stated, “We don’t have a problem with the government over tax payment or payment of any approved revenue in the market. Traders in the market are law-abiding, responsible and peaceful citizens, who pay their taxes to the government regularly. “We pay the N14,000 monthly business premises levy and stall fees to the Ebonyi Local Government Council. At no point has the Ebonyi State Government, its agents or privy has approached traders at the market through their leaders or individually over tax evasion or revenue default. “It is strange to us to hear that traders, who are peaceful and law-abiding, attacked Ebonyi revenue collectors, who came to enforce revenue payment compliance and to sanction those who refused to pay their taxes, including the business premises levy. “We are using this medium to inform the world that at no time did traders at the Abakpa Main Market, Abakaliki, defaulted in the payment of taxes or payment of any approved revenue. “We challenge government to show evidence of its claim. “Mr Peter Oba, who is not a shop owner or trader in the market, was brought in and imposed on the traders.” Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Internally Generated Revenue, Martin Ukwuegu, has insisted that the government revenue agents went into the market to enforce revenue payment compliance and denied that no trader was killed during the exercise.

Source: Punch

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Participants at a high-level session on tobacco tax earmarking convened by the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) and the Federal Ministry of Health have highlighted the importance of the establishment of Tobacco Control Fund for successful implementation of tobacco control policies in the country.
The meeting, held in Abuja on Wednesday, was attended by senior officials from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Customs Service, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trades and Investment, Budget Office of the federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), as well as Centre for the study of economics of Africa and the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), among others. In a communiqué issued at the end of the event, participants noted that tobacco is a leading cause of death globally and the tobacco issue in Nigeria requires urgent attention, especially with the various novel products and advertising methods that the tobacco industries are contriving. They averred that the burden of tobacco-induced diseases on public health of the country is high and concerted effort is needed to address the spate of tobacco induced diseases (non-communicable diseases) in the country. They stressed that according to global best practices and recommendations of various experts, high tobacco taxes remain the single most effective and cost effective way to reduce tobacco use. It was observed that healthcare and health coverage in Nigeria are underfunded and tobacco control needs more funding, which can be achieved through earmarking of tobacco taxes because of its success rate in other countries.

Source: Leadership

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Businesses operating in Nigeria’s internet space are preparing to add value-added tax (VAT) to their cost of doing business. Babatunde Fowler, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) recently announced that the service will extend its tax net by charging 5% VAT on online transactions.
Since its inception, the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has made attempts to increase government’s revenue.In collaboration with the FIRS, Kemi Adeosun, the administration’s first minister of finance, introduced programmes like the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) and Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularisation Scheme (VOARS), which mandates citizens to pay tax on offshore assets. Adeosun and Zainab Ahmed, the current minister of finance, budget and national planning, have also made statements about Nigeria having a revenue problem, not a debt problem. Although the FIRS has not released the details of how this directive will be carried out, checks by TheCable suggests that these under-listed businesses will be affected.
DOMESTIC SHOPPING WEBSITES
With the advent of the internet in Nigeria, a number of domestic shopping websites have found a place in Nigeria. The most popular of these shopping websites are Jumia and Konga. These platforms offer a wide range of products and services which are all web-based. One might argue that these platforms carry some items that VAT has already been considered in the final retail price. These are some of the fine details that the FIRS will work out.
FOREIGN SHOPPING WEBSITES
According to the 1993 VAT act which was amended in 2007, “any service received from outside Nigeria other than those listed in appendix 1 to this Circular (i.e. the list of exempted goods and services) attract VAT at the normal rate of 5%”. In a recent interview, Folwer said it does not matter if the item has already been vatted in its originating country. “If you reside here, have your business here, and you make a purchase outside the shores of this country, you’re expected to pay VAT. Whether the invoice from that foreign merchant includes VAT in its bill to you or not,” he said.
TECH COMPANIES The directive will apply to these companies on products that are sold locally. This is because the VAT act states that all non-oil exports are zero-rated. For example, Andela would be required to remit VAT for software sold locally but this will not apply to software sold to foreign companies.
WEB-BASED TICKETING PLATFORMS
Thinking about attending that next Davido or Tiwa Savage show,? From January 2020, organisers who choose to sell tickets online would have to remit VAT to the FIRS. However, plays and performances conducted by educational institutions are exempted from VAT.
NETFLIX, IROKOTV
Subscriptions to these movie streaming services are carried out online. Entertainment services are not VAT-exempt hence, they will be required to remit VAT on their subscriptions when the directive becomes effective.
iTunes
Like the movie streaming platforms, music streaming platforms like iTunes will also be required to remit VAT.
FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER
Although these might appear like regular social media platforms, subscribers who use their promoted post services will be charged VAT. The VATable services may be more or less depending on the implementation framework released by the FIRS.
UBER, BOLT, GOKADA, O’PAY
These transportation companies rely on the internet to connect with customers and riders. Like the local shopping websites, they are directly affected by this policy.
INSTAGRAM VENDORS
According to the FIRS boss, banks will act as collection agents for the new policy. Instagram vendors often require that customers pay money into accounts registered with the names of their businesses.
These accounts could be pointers to business transactions for banks.
ONLINE LOGISTICS COMPANIES
A lot of companies and businesses depend on delivery/dispatch/logistics companies to complete their transactions. Some of these logistics companies carry out the majority of their transactions online thereby making them eligible to pay VAT.

Source: The cable

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Neymar returned with a bang for Paris Saint-Germain, while Ansu Fati made sure Barcelona did not miss Lionel Messi, or Neymar for that matter. As RB Leipzig showed their mettle in the Bundesliga and Ajax warmed up for the start of the Champions League, here are five things we learned in Europe over the weekend.
Actions speak loudest for Neymar
The vitriol aimed at Neymar from certain sections of the Paris Saint-Germain support during their game against Strasbourg on Saturday was quite something, as the Brazilian played his first game for the club after his summer-long transfer saga. The world’s most expensive player was booed, whistled and insulted by his own fans, and it was impossible not to watch the game and think that he needed to say something to calm the mood among unhappy fans. He did speak after the game, but first he gave PSG a 1-0 win with a stunning injury-time overhead kick. Not everyone was won over immediately, but more moments like that one and even the angriest fans of the French champions may be willing to forget how desperate Neymar was to return to Barcelona.
Fantastic Fati the real deal
Teenage starlet Ansu Fati continues to marvel for Barcelona, with the 16-year-old starting and scoring the opener in his team’s 5-2 demolition of Valencia in La Liga. That followed a goal from the bench at Osasuna two weeks earlier, and it is easy to see why some in Catalonia think the youngster from Guinea Bissau could be the most exciting talent to emerge at the club since Lionel Messi 15 years ago. Fati, who was raised in Seville, also set up a goal for Frenkie de Jong, while 21-year-old Carles Perez lined up on the opposite flank for Ernesto Valverde’s side with Messi still sidelined. “Coming to terms with being a Barcelona player is a job for anybody, all the more so for such a young boy,” said Valverde. “We want him to get to know the top-level, see how difficult it is and come to terms with how much work he has to put in. He can still bring more to the team.”
Leipzig are title contenders
Saturday was billed as an early litmus test in the Bundesliga title race as last year’s top four met each other in two early season six-pointers. Borussia Dortmund delivered a statement with a 4-0 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen, but it was RB Leipzig who made the biggest impression as they held on to top spot with a 1-1 draw at home to Bayern Munich. Utterly outclassed in the first half, a tactical change and a well-timed penalty saw Leipzig pick up a deserved draw to stay top of the table after four games. The result saw Julian Nagelsmann’s side hailed as genuine title contenders in the German press, though the coach himself warned the team not to get ahead of themselves. “We are not the only team who want to attack Bayern,” he said.
Mkhitaryan off mark with Roma
On-loan Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored on his debut for Roma as the capital side got their first win this season, 4-2 over Sassuolo. The Armenia international scored the third goal after Bryan Cristante’s header and a volley from Edin Dzeko, with Justin Kluivert completing the scoring in a 21-minute first-half spell. Mkhitaryan failed to meet expectations at both Arsenal and former club Manchester United and is hoping to revive his career at Roma, who are now eighth in Serie A. “With (Jordan) Veretout and Mkhitaryan in the team, we’re better at keeping the ball,” said new Roma coach Paulo Fonseca. – Ajax warm up in style – Last season’s Champions League semi-finalists Ajax begin their group-stage campaign against Lille on Tuesday and the Dutch title-holders warmed up in style with a 4-1 win over Heerenveen. Nicolas Tagliafico scored twice while Dusan Tadic and Perr Schuurs also netted in Ajax’s third straight 4-1 win in the Eredivisie. They are level on points with PSV Eindhoven at the top of the table.

Source: Punch

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Manchester City succumbed to a first Premier League defeat since January in stunning fashion to newly-promoted Norwich 3-2 on Saturday, as Liverpool opened up a five-point lead at the top of the table by beating Newcastle 3-1. Tottenham and Chelsea bounced back to form with comprehensive wins over Crystal Palace and Wolves respectively, while Manchester United held out for a much-needed three points with a 1-0 victory over Leicester. However, Liverpool was the big winners of the day as the gaps left in City’s defence by the injured Aymeric Laporte were exposed at Carrow Road. “Of course it is a special day for us and for the club,” said Norwich boss Daniel Farke. “We had to be special in our plan for City because they are the best team in the world and we had setbacks too with our injuries, but we deserved the win today. We were exceptional.” Kenny McLean showed up the champions’ struggles to defend set-pieces with a towering header to open the scoring and Teemu Pukki then squared for Todd Cantwell to make it 2-0 inside 28 minutes. City regained their composure and got a foothold in the game before half-time when Sergio Aguero headed home Bernardo Silva’s cross. However, with Laporte out till January at least with a serious knee injury, Pep Guardiola has problems to solve at the heart of his defence as John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi gifted Norwich a third at the start of the second half. Emiliano Buendia robbed Otamendi on the edge of his own box and set up Pukki to prod home. City rallied late on, but Rodri’s first goal for the club two minutes from time was too little, too late. “I know what we are as a team, what we have done, what we are going to do again, and I love my players. It is a pleasure and honour to be with them,” insisted Guardiola. “That is the challenge at a high level. The people cannot expect all the time (to) win.”
– Liverpool turn up in time –
Liverpool also fell behind early on to Newcastle as Jetro Willems brilliant finish saw the Reds trailing at Anfield for the first time since March. Sadio Mane fired into the top corner to start the revival, but it was the introduction of Roberto Firmino off the bench for the injured Divock Origi that truly turned the tide in Liverpool’s favour. The Brazilian’s through ball was spilled by Martin Dubravka to allow Mane a simple task for his second just before half-time, and another brilliant Firmino flick teed up Salah to seal the points 18 minutes from time. “I started enjoying after 25 minutes, around about when we arrived finally in the game,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. “Second-half we scored only one goal, but we played really good football and I liked it a lot.”
– Relief for Lampard –
Frank Lampard has endured a difficult start on his return to Stamford Bridge as a manager, but he enjoyed his finest day so far in charge of Chelsea with his faith in youth again fully vindicated in a 5-2 win at Wolves. Tammy Abraham was the star of the show with a hat-trick, but Fikayo Tomori also scored his first goal for the club and Mason Mount completed a perfect day for three graduates of Chelsea’s academy. “All three goals were so different, it just shows what he can do,” said Lampard of Abraham, who now has seven goals in three games. “I am so delighted for him. I know how hard the academy works and Tammy has an enthusiasm to score goals. He has a fantastic approach to the game and how he wants to progress.” Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said David Beckham asked to play for his side so impressed was the former England captain with Spurs first-half demolition of Palace in a 4-0 win. All four goals came before half-time with Son Heung-min scoring twice either side of Patrick van Aanholt’s own goal before Erik Lamela rounded off the scoring. “I was talking to David Beckham just now and he said, ‘I wish I could still play football and play now for Tottenham because this stadium is amazing. I wish I could play here and play for you!'” Pochettino said. United had to suffer far more for just a second win in 10 league matches. Rashford shrugged off his recent miss from the spot in defeat to Palace to convert a penalty on eight minutes after he had been brought down by Caglar Soyuncu. United, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Leicester are all now level on eight points from five games behind the top two. “We hung in there. It was the first time this season where we have had to defend for large periods,” said United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Jeff Hendrick struck a late equaliser for Burnley to secure a 1-1 draw at Brighton after Neil Maupay’s opener for the Seagulls. Southampton were 1-0 victors at Sheffield United courtesy of a brilliant strike from Moussa Djenepo.

Source: punch

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The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, has again reiterated that the payment of VAT on VATable online transactions is required by the law. But while this is true by all means, Nigerians have continued to express their misgivings to this development.
There are many reasons why Nigerians have continued to express their misgivings over FIRS’ move to implement this policy starting early next year. Before we examine those, let us first briefly look at why the Nigerian Government is so focused on tax at the moment. A broke government? There have been some indications that the Federal Government of Nigeria is seriously financially-handicapped. Bloomberg even reported earlier today that “Africa’s largest oil producer could run out of money if it doesn’t boost revenues urgently”. As such, the Buhari-led administration is making desperate efforts to generate more revenue. VAT for the rescue: One of the ways the government hopes to bring in more money is obviously by focusing on VAT. This comes after a leaked memo revealed that the Presidency recently queried the FIRS boss over consistent failure to meet VAT target. Consequently, the FIRS has taken it upon itself to ensure that more money is generated for the government through VAT. Fowler himself even acknowledged that “VAT is certainly something that is required, as it is the fastest-growing tax type worldwide”. But the FIRS’s move to collect VAT on online Transactions has generated quite a lot of controversies. Nairametrics recently reported that stakeholders in the E-commerce space have frowned against the move, citing that it could potentially cripple businesses. Regular Nigerians have also expressed their concerns over the move. As expected, their main concern is that an additional 5% value-added tax on online transactions will only add to the hardship already faced by most Nigerians. Just yesterday, a Nairametrics reader named Ola Ilesanmi, left a thought-provoking comment on one of our articles. Ilesanmi’s comment reads in parts; “I don’t actually know what investors will return as gains as from next January if an investor pays 1.statutory Charges on equities subscribed at 3.9% per transaction, 2. VAT on investment 5% per transaction, 3. VAT ( the percentage yet to be declared by FIRS ) on online transactions within or outside the country.” Note that the FIRS had earlier explained on Twitter that this move is not intended to stagnate the growth of SMEs/MSMEs, particularly those operating in the online space. The tax body also clarified that only online businesses that do not currently pay VAT will be required to do so henceforth. Similarly, only VATable online transactions will be subject to this policy. However, despite this explanation, Nigerians have a lot of questions.

Source: Nairamatric


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It was another record-breaking night for Cristiano Ronaldo, despite Robbie Keane’s best efforts to steer him away. The Juventus forward netted four goals as Portugal beat Lithuania to take his overall tally to 25 in European qualifying – two more than the previous record set by former Republic of Ireland striker Keane. Before the match, Keane asked Ronaldo to “leave this one” after pointing out the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was two goals away from his record. “I think you have enough records, Cristiano!” Keane joked on Instagram. But after scoring against his 150th different team for club and country, there was no stopping Ronaldo netting his eighth international hat-trick and stealing the limelight. Ronaldo has now scored 93 international goals, 16 behind Iran legend Ali Daei’s world record in men’s football and is also the first European to score 90 goals for his country. The 34-year-old is the leading scorer in European Championships. He has netted 34 goals in total – including nine in final tournaments, which is also a joint-record with Frenchman Michel Platini. Those goals came in four successive tournaments – 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 – with one in the semi-final victory over Wales during Portugal’s title-winning campaign three years ago. No other European has scored more goals in competitive international fixtures, with Ronaldo netting 72, including the first goal and a hat-trick in the Nations League Finals when he put three past Switzerland in the last four in June. And his tally of 30 goals in European World Cup qualifying is another record. Ronaldo has netted against an impressive 150 different teams while playing for clubs and country. Just under a third of those have been against other nations (40), while just 17 have been in friendly matches. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has a knack for leaving it late too, with 26 of his 93 international goals coming in the last 15 minutes. He has scored more goals with his head (25) than with his left foot (22) and in the 61 games he has scored in, Portugal have gone on to lose just five of them, winning 51. Interestingly – outside of penalty shootouts – Ronaldo has never scored against European giants France, Germany, Italy or England. He has scored five goals against Andorra, Armenia, Latvia and Sweden – more than any other nation.

Source: punch

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Tax payment is compulsory for every business owner in Nigeria as well as employed Nigerian citizens. However, it is impossible to pay your tax or open a corporate bank account without your tax identification number
(TIN). So, in this article, we will take you through the process of how to get TIN in Nigeria either as an individual or a company.
Generally speaking, to get your TIN in Nigeria, all you need to do is:
Visit the nearest FIRS office
Request for the relevant documents or forms involved
Fill the forms correctly
Return the completely filled form to FIRS
Present your valid ID card e.g International passport, National ID card, Voters Card or Drivers license
Submit your passport and fingerprints
Nevertheless, we have broken down this process to answer the frequent questions people ask about tax identification number. Ensure you read till the end.
What is Tax Identification Number (TIN)?
Basically, TIN is a unique number given to an individual, a registered business or incorporated companies for the purpose of tax payment. Usually, the number is issued by the tax office for proper identifications and
order.
Why Should I get A TIN?
TIN is the prove you have to show that you are a registered tax payer in Nigeria. In addition to that, TIN helps you to avoid double taxation because your payment can be traced and verified.
Not only that, TIN is required for:
Government loans
Foreign exchange
Tax clearance certificate
Opening corporate account
Application for certificate of occupancy
Application for trade, import and export licenses
Registration of Motor Vehicles

Source: Entrepreneur  


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In the last month or so, several professional associations from across India have raised issues with the finance minister about the manner in which certain procedures, including online systems, followed by the tax department are causing difficulties for common taxpayers, instead of making life easier for taxpayers. At times, the systems cause insurmountable difficulties at the time of filing their income tax returns (ITR).
One of the significant items pointed out is the late availability and constant changing of the ITR filing utility, which is an excel or java software that you fill in, and upload on the tax filing website. Earlier, the ITR formats for the year were notified sometime in May. Due to a high court order, these are now notified in the first week of April. However, you cannot file your ITR until the ITR filing utility is available, which generally (for most forms) does not come out till June. The problem does not end there. The tax utility often throws up mistakes like incorrect computation. For instance, till the first week of July, the tax utility did not compute the correct long-term capital gains (LTCG) on the sale of listed shares. Taxpayers with such LTCG had to wait till then to file their ITR. Further, the utility changes at frequent intervals, of a few days each. Therefore, if you download a utility, fill it partly and complete it after a week of getting all the relevant details, which most taxpayers do, you may not be able to upload the same utility. You will have to fill up a new utility all over again, and then upload it. The worst part is that there are many provisions in the tax utilities, whereby the income is computed in a particular manner once the details are fed in, which is at times inconsistent with court decisions. You are, therefore, forced to compute your taxable income in a particular manner, which follows the views taken by the tax authorities, though the law has been interpreted differently by the courts. When you had manual returns, you could choose to follow the views taken by the courts, and append a note explaining your stand. There is unfortunately no facility available to make such claims in the ITR, or to give an explanation regarding your view while computing your income. One, therefore, has to figure out an ingenuous way of filling in the ITR utility, whereby the income computed is in accordance with the stand that you adopt. Therefore, a taxpayer now has to understand tax laws, and also rack his brains to figure out a way whereby the utility computes income and taxes correctly. This makes tax filing a fairly complex and daunting experience for most taxpayers, who opt to outsource this task to professionals. The story does not end here. Many taxpayers receive notices from the Centralised Processing Centre stating that their ITR is defective and asking why they should not be treated as invalid since they are not correctly filled in, or threatening to increase their taxable income and their tax liability. Very often, such defects or mistakes are on account of the fact that taxpayers have used earlier versions of the tax filing utility, while the software processes all the returns on the basis of the latest utility. A clear case of early worms being penalized, instead of being rewarded. One of the major reasons for these problems is the fact that every year, so many changes are made in our tax laws, that the tax return forms necessarily have to be amended. Amendment in ITR requires amendment in tax filing utilities, often in a short period of time. The brunt of the defects in the software due to changes made in such a hurried manner is borne by the taxpayer. Perhaps, with the new direct tax law coming in, it is time that changes in tax laws and the format of tax return forms are carried out only once in five years, instead of every year. This will stabilize the systems and reduce the problems substantially. The other major problem is that the tax department is seeking to extract too much information from taxpayers, all of a sudden, or introducing such complicated provisions in laws that the software is not able to compute the income properly in the first instance. A classic case being LTCG computation for listed shares, with substitution of fair market value as of 31 January 2018. There are so many permutations and combinations at times, as in the case of capital gains for different types of assets, that bugs in the software are inevitable in the first instance. What we need, perhaps, are simpler and clearer laws, which again one hopes that one will soon have, with the new income tax law. Add to this, the penalties and the horrendous provisions for prosecution if you are lax in filing your ITR—that makes for a classic painful story for taxpayers. As Chanakya rightly said, “The ruler should act like a bee which collects honey (tax) without causing pain to the plant." One hopes the government understands the underlying problems, and takes care to address these, rather than focusing on superficial issues.

Source: Live mint

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Enyimba Head Coach, Usman Abd’Allah has called on the Abia Government to give the Aba Stadium a standard floodlights to attract more international games to the arena, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Abd’Allah said the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) concession to have Enyimba’s match with Al Hilal of Sudan in the group stage of the CAF Champions League in Aba was an “exceptional approval”. He added: “The closed door match we played with Rahimo of Burkina Faso was because we did not have standard floodlights. “The main issue is getting standard floodlights and the second issue is the security at the stadium. “They (CAF) are worried about the security situation of the Enyimba Stadium,” he said, noting, “the environment for the match could be cleared some hours to the match but the floodlights, we have to get them. “Those are the main issues CAF is complaining about but out of the two, the most crucial is the floodlights. “I know the state government has been trying for us but we want it to do more and give us standard floodlights at the stadium.”

Source: Punch

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The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other African countries’ tax agencies are strategising to ensure owners of infrastructure investments in the continent are properly taxed, especially in the aspect of Value Added Tax (VAT).
Over a trillion dollars is slated for investment towards infrastructure development over the next 10 years in the continent. Speaking at African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) technical workshop on VAT yesterday in Abuja, executive secretary of the forum, Mr. Logan Wort said the current digital economy around the globe presents new opportunities for revenue administration to feature innovation in system design for the collection. 2018 edition of Deloitte’s Africa Construction Trends report had indicated that as of June 2018, Africa had 482 projects, each valued at $50 million or above. In total these construction projects were valued at $471 billion. This was an increase of 53 per cent of the total value of $307 billion recorded in 2017. In 2018, the top three countries in terms of construction projects were Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria. Egypt had the highest recorded number of projects, totalling 46 and accounting for 9.5 per cent of African projects. In terms of value, Egypt also topped Africa, recording projects worth US79.2 billion. This accounted for 17 per cent of the continent’s value of projects. Despite the opportunities of digital economy, Wort noted that e-commerce changes the distribution of taxable activities; it poses challenges to the jurisdiction to tax income and alters the balance of taxing authority, and results in the erosion of countries’ tax bases. “E-commerce creates difficulties in the identification and location of taxpayers, the identification and verification of taxable transactions and the ability to establish a link between taxpayers and their taxable transactions, thus creating opportunities for tax avoidance,” he remarked at the 3-day event. As a solution, Wort said the Forum has commenced work on guidelines on VAT issues that will enable individual country collect all due VAT. “The taxation of cross-border digital transactions should preferably be done electronically and with minimal human intervention. A withholding tax mechanism by financial institutions through the implementation of a real-time (RT)-VAT system, offers this possibility,” he added. In his opening remarks, FIRS chairman, Babatunde Fowler said the use of technology is pivotal to the effective monitoring of Value Added Tax (VAT) collection in Africa. Fowler stated this yesterday at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) technical workshop on VAT in Abuja . According to the tax administrator, many Africans now utilise various online platforms as their preferred means of shopping. He, therefore, urged African tax revenue agencies to begin to understand the digital system, adopt technology and begin to map out plans for the collection of VAT for online transactions. He also called on African tax revenue agencies to synergise their manual and digital operations to facilitate the collection of VAT on cross-border digital trade “We need to closely look at the taxation of digital goods and services. Increasingly, consumers are looking for products, services and goods online. “This forms part of the 4th Industrial Revolution, where our civilisation is moving towards digital platforms as a means of facilitating the day-to-day running of businesses and households. “It is imperative to understand how this will affect VAT as a tax and how best to mitigate any challenges,” he said. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) BEPS Action 1 points out the challenges the digital economy poses to international taxation and the OECD has made recommendations in this regard. These include: the need to develop rules to address the tax challenges of the digital economy; identification of the main challenges of the digital economy; holistic approach is required, which covers both direct and indirect taxation and specific challenges include the ability of a company to have a significant digital. Others are: presence in the economy of another country without being liable to taxation due to the lack of nexus under current international rules and the attribution of value created from the generation of marketable location-relevant data through the use of digital products and services

Source: leadership


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The people of Jericho held Zacchaeus, the corrupt chief tax collector, in low esteem. The biblical story had it that when Jesus was passing through Jericho, the very short Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse of him. People grumbled and looked at him with scorn. If they had their way, they would have pulled him down from that tree.
Many Nigerians still see Zacchaeus in our modern-day tax collectors. Be they agents of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), state Inland Revenue Service or even local government thugs, these tax collectors have a way of harassing corporate and private individuals over tax issues. Last week, for instance, the FIRS released a list of 19,901 companies that allegedly defaulted in tax payment. Some of the defaulters include Obasanjo Farms, owned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo; Davido Music Worldwide Ltd, owned by popular musician, David Adeleke; God is Good Motors; Slot Enterprises; and popular supermarket chain, Addide. The FIRS placed the accounts of these companies under lien. It threatened that, should they fail, refuse or neglect to pay the tax due within 30 days of the notice, it would proceed and enforce the payment against all the directors, managers, secretaries and every other person concerned in the management of the companies. For many of these companies, part of the problem is that they are confronted with up to 50 different taxes and levies in Nigeria. The Federal Government collects such taxes as companies’ income tax, education tax, and value added tax. States collect such taxes and levies as personal income tax, withholding tax (individuals only), capital gains tax (individuals only), and stamp duties on instruments executed by individuals. There are also pools betting and lotteries, gaming and casino taxes, road taxes, business premises registration fees in respect of urban and rural areas, land use charge, consumption tax (hotels, restaurants and event centres) and many others. The local governments, on their part, collect such taxes and levies as tenement rate, right of occupancy, market taxes and levies, merriment and road closure levy, marriage, birth and death registration fees and many others. Multiple taxes have crippled operations of a lot of companies in Nigeria. In some cases, tax collectors reportedly compel companies that recorded losses to pay taxes from their turnover. Besides, the high rate of withholding tax charged on dividends reportedly scares many companies from listing their shares on the stock exchange. Fewer than 200 companies are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, whereas the country can boast of over 2,000 registered public companies. Little wonder Nigeria ranks low on the world ease of doing business index. No doubt, tax is a good source of revenue for government. Hence, some people saddled with the responsibility of collecting it, like the executive chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, will not agree that there is anything like multiple taxes in Nigeria. They think more on how to generate better income from taxation and less on accountability and proper utilisation of the tax proceeds. That is why the recent action of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, is commendable. Kyari queried Fowler over alleged discrepancies in tax collections from 2015 to 2018. In 2015, for instance, the budgeted target was N4.5 trillion, while the actual amount collected was N3.7 trillion. In 2016, the actual collection was N3.307 trillion, whereas what was budgeted was N4.95 trillion. In 2017 and 2018, the FIRS collected N4.027 trillion and N5.32 trillion, respectively. However, the budgeted targets for the two years were N4.89 trillion and N6.7 trillion, respectively. Kyari’s query raised suspicions in some quarters. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, for instance, urged the National Assembly “to come to the rescue by holding a public inquest into the handling of taxes collected by the FIRS in the last four years, take urgent steps to recover the stolen funds and channel such to projects that have direct bearing on the welfare of Nigerians.” To clarify issues, the Presidency quickly issued a statement. Fowler, it said, was not under any probe. The letter from Kyari, it explained, merely raised concerns over the negative run of the tax revenue collection in recent times. Nevertheless, the Federal Government announced plans to audit FIRS and Customs’ revenues. These two agencies are money-spinners. Perhaps, the government suspects that to whom much is given, much could also be stolen. In Abuja, Lagos and some other places, people talk in hushed tones about how money realised from taxes is allegedly diverted. It is expected that the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which will likely conduct this audit, will do a good job of it. My only fear is that nothing much would come out of it. Recently, the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), Anthony Ayine, indicted many government agencies for not submitting their audited accounts to his office. Ayine also accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Solid Minerals Ministry of poor/non-disclosure of receipts. In an audit report, the AuGF said, as at April 2018, 109 agencies had not submitted beyond 2013; 76 agencies last submitted for the 2010 financial year, while 65 agencies have never submitted any account since inception. Besides, the AuGF reported errors in the amounts included as the Federal Government’s share of VAT for 2016. The sum of N108,997,999,612.48 was recorded as Federal Government’s share of VAT without the full picture of the VAT earnings to the federation. From the auditor’s account, what was due the Federal Government from January to December 2016 was N116,783,571,013.35. This posted a difference of N7,785,571,400.87. The Accountant-General of the Federation could not provide explanations for this difference at the time of the audit report. Despite concerns raised by the AuGF, nothing much was done to sanction defaulting agencies and parastatals.

Source: Sun News

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The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said that it would start charging Value Added Tax on online transactions, both domestic and international, with effective from January 2020. The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler, disclosed this at the African Tax Administration Forum Technical Workshop on VAT on Monday in Abuja.
Fowler said that a lot of countries in the world had identified Nigeria as a good market and many of them were into online businesses, adding that there was the need to tap the potentials to generate more revenue for the country. He, however, said that that the date of commencement of the VAT on online transactions would be subject to government’s approval. “We have thrown it out to Nigerians. Effective from January 2020, we will ask banks to charge VAT on online transactions, both domestic and international. “VAT remains the cash cow in most African countries, with an average VAT-to-total tax revenue rate of 31 per cent. This is higher than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s average of 20 per cent. “This statistics, therefore, is a validation of the need for us to streamline the administration of this tax with the full knowledge of its potential contributions to national budgets. “It is, however, also bearing in mind the rights of our taxpayers,” he said. According to him, in Nigeria, for example, VAT is critical to the development of projects at all levels of government. “VAT revenue is shared 15 per cent to the Federal Government, 50 per cent to state governments and 35 per cent to local governments. “FIRS wrote to all commercial banks in May 2018, requesting for a list of companies, partnerships and enterprises with a banking turnover of N1 billion and above. “This activity is aimed at ascertaining those companies that are compliant with the tax laws and those that are not,” he said. Fowler, who is also the chairman of ATAF, said that the African tax outlook gave some starting points on the questions to ask regarding some aspects of VAT.

Source: Punch


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Global tax risk and controversy are on the rise globally, especially for multinational enterprises (MNEs), and this is driven by a number of factors. The first part of this article is devoted to examining the general trends in the global tax landscape within which the MNEs operate in order to set the background. Later in the article, the various phases in the tax risk management process, and the tools available to manage risk under each phase are highlighted. The article then concludes by highlighting the risks created by tax controversy.
First and foremost, businesses have become very dynamic, with transactions being structured in ways that were never envisaged at the time the tax laws were being enacted. We are now talking about e-business, digital economy, block-chain, robotics, to mention a few. All these developments present new challenges for Revenue Authorities, MNEs and their tax advisors alike. Secondly, the global tax landscape is more volatile and contentious, hence causing more tax disputes and controversy. We have seen a plethora of tax reforms both in the United States and in the European Union coupled with the famous Brexit in the United Kingdom. All these developments have far-reaching ramifications for MNEs wherever they operate, including in the developing world. Thirdly, Revenue Authorities around the world have become more aggressive and focussed on transactions taking place in their jurisdictions, especially by MNEs. The G20 countries as well as the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Africa Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) have been at the forefront of driving this agenda. As the Ethiopians say, “The man that marries a beautiful wife, and the one that grows corn by the roadside, have the same problem”! The MNEs are the proverbial man that married a beautiful wife; every Revenue Authority wants to grab a share of what they perceive as income generated from its territory. Fourthly, the rapid pace of tax law changes creates more tax risk and controversy since taxpayers find themselves always aiming at a moving target in their tax compliance agenda. In the wake of the finalisation of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, many countries have embarked on a flurry of tax law changes, ranging from the traditional amendments to complete overhaul of tax laws. For example, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have in the past two or three financial years effected a number of amendments in their domestic tax laws; Rwanda, on the other hand, has taken a more radical approach in the past three years, issuing completely new Income Tax and Value Added Tax Laws as well as cancelling its Double Tax Treaty with Mauritius and negotiating an entirely new Treaty. We are also witnessing increased information sharing among Revenue Authorities, presenting new challenges for multinational companies (MNEs). In the developed world, it is not uncommon for a multinational group to be handling a tax issue with the Tax Administration in one territory, only for follow-up queries on the same subject to be raised by the Tax Authority of another jurisdiction in which they operate. On the African continent, the Africa Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) is spearheading this. At the tail- end of July 2018, during my tour of duty in Rwanda, I was privileged to attend the ATAF High Level Tax Policy Dialogue that took place in Kigali. The subject of information sharing was high on the agenda; therefore, MNEs cannot afford to adopt a business-as-usual approach to their tax compliance agenda in Africa anymore. Additionally, narrow tax bases in most of the developing countries mean that Revenue Authorities have become more unreasonable and aggressive in their approach and interpretation, especially when it comes to grey areas in the law as well as borderline cases, in order to meet increased tax revenue targets. For instance, Uganda Revenue Authority was tasked to collect about Sixteen Trillion Uganda Shillings last financial year; this has been raised to about Twenty Trillion for the current financial year. Hence, taxpayers should not expect to be faced with an overly reasonable taxman. As the Nigerian saying goes, “The frown on a goat’s face does not prevent it being taken to the market for sale”! In a nutshell, all the above trends imply that taxpayers and their business advisors must take a more holistic view of the tax legislative and regulatory environments within which they operate if they are to remain on top of their tax risk management agenda.

Source: New Vision

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Daniil Medvedev said the energy of the New York crowd helped instigate his stunning fightback that saw him fall just short against Rafael Nadal in a five-set classic in Sunday’s US Open final. The Russian fifth seed dropped the first two sets to Nadal in his first Grand Slam final but charged back to force a decider, almost erasing a double break deficit in the fifth set before going down 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4. “First of all I just want to congratulate Rafa, 19th Grand Slam title is something unbelievable, outrageous,” Medvedev said. “What you’ve done for tennis in general, it’s amazing for our sport. Thank you and congrats again.” Medvedev has experienced a love-hate relationship with fans at Flushing Meadows after an obscene gesture in a third-round match prompted loud boos, to which the Russian later responded with a taunt of his own. But the 23-year-old won the crowd over during his run to the final, where he was attempting to become the youngest Grand Slam champion since Juan Martin del Potro won the US Open in 2009. “To be honest in my mind, I was already thinking, ‘What do I say in the speech, it’s going to be in 20 minutes,” Medvedev recalled, having fallen two sets behind to Nadal. “I was like I have to fight for every ball, and it went further but it didn’t go my way. I know earlier in the tournament I said a bad thing, and now it’s a good thing. “It’s because of your energy that I’m here in the final. I mean, tonight is going to always be in my mind because I played in the biggest court in the tennis world. “You guys were pushing me to prolong this match because you want to see more tennis. Because of you guys, I was fighting like hell. “It’s electric. You were booing me for a reason. I can also change because I am a human being and I can make mistakes. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.”

Source: Punch

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Injured Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot has been having treatment at Chinese club Shanghai SIPG under a Brazilian physio known as the “Miracle Doctor”. The 20-year-old Portuguese right-back is yet to feature this season and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said last month that he was out until after the current international break. What Solskjaer did not say is that Dalot, a $25 million capture in June 2018 from Porto, was suffering from a hip problem and had gone to see Shanghai’s physio Eduardo Santos. Dalot landed in Shanghai on August 29 and spent 10 days with the Chinese champions, the club said, publishing a photo of the defender at their training ground. Dalot, who could be moved to a more advanced role on United’s right after the signing of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, may now be in contention for a Premier League start this month. Then-United manager Jose Mourinho called Dalot the best young full-back in Europe after signing him last summer. Santos was dubbed “Miracle Doctor” by French media in 2015 after getting defender David Luiz — then at Paris Saint-Germain — fit in just a few days after a serious hamstring tear. Luiz had contacted his fellow Brazilian, then employed by Zenit St. Petersburg, and flew off to Russia for treatment. French international Eliaquim Mangala, former Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele and Colombian striker Radamel Falcao have all sought Santos’s help in recent years. There have been murmurs from experts querying how he can get players back into action so quickly, but Santos told AFP in an interview last year: “What we do is not a miracle. “I do science, and of course the results that I have are really, really good.”

Source: Punch


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The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, yesterday said the nation’s tax cash grew from N12, 190.52trillion between 2012 and 2014 to N16, 771.78 trillion from 2016 to 2018. He said the growth represented an increase of 37. 58 per cent. He also insisted that he had grown the tax returns from the Non-Oil Sector by N1, 304.20trillion (21 per cent) from 2016 and 2018.
He said the strategies put in place by the FIRS boosted the Value Added Tax (VAT) during the period 2015-2017, which led to approximately 40 per cent increase over 2012-2014 collections. He said the poor shape of the economy accounted for a drop in the nation’s tax revenue. He insisted that he had performed well within the mandate given to him by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. It was learnt that there was disquiet in the Presidency over Chief of Staff to President Abba Kyari’s query to Fowler because he was allegedly not directed by the President to do so. Fowler made these clarifications in an August 19, 2019 response to the query. He said: “I refer to your letter dated 8‘” August, 2019 on the above subject matter and hereby submit a comprehensive variance analysis between budgeted and actual collections for each main tax item for the period 2012-2018 as requested (see appendix 1). “Your letter stated that actual collections for a 3-year period were significantly worse than what was collected between 2012 and 2014. Total actual collection for the said period was N14, 527.85 trillion, while total actual collection between 2016 and 2018 was N12, 656.30trillion. “The highlight of these collection figures was that during the period 2012 to 2014, out of the N14, 527.85 trillion, oil revenue accounted for N8, 321.64 trillion or 57.28% while non-oil accounted for N6, 206.22 trillion or 42.72% and during the later period of 2016 to 2018 out of the N12, 656.30 trillion, oil revenue accounted for N5, 145.87 trillion or 40.65% and non-oil revenue accounted N7, 510.42 trillion or 59.35%. “FIRS management has control of non-oil revenue collection figures while oil revenue collection figures are subject to more external forces as highlighted below. “From the above, the non-oil revenue collection grew by N1, 304 20 trillion or 21% within the period 2016 to 2018. Kindly note that the total budget collection figure during 2012 to 2014 stood at N12, 190 52 trillion compared to N16, 771.78 trillion for the period 2016 to 2018 which represent an increase of 37.58% “ Fowler gave the details of how the economic recession and drop in oil production accounted for the variance in the budgeted and actual revenue collection. He added: “Please note that the variance in the budgeted and actual revenue collection performance of the Service for the period 2016 to 2018 was mainly attributed to the following reasons: “The low inflow of oil revenues for the period especially Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) was due to fall in price of crude oil and reduction of crude oil production. Notwithstanding government efforts to diversify the economy, oil revenues remains an important component of total revenues accruable to the Federation. “The price of crude oil fell from an average of $113.72, $110.98 and $100.40 per barrel in 2012, 2013 and 2014 to $52.65, $43.80 and $54.08 per barrel in 2015, 2016 and 2017. “There was also a reduction in crude oil production from 2.31mbpd, 2.18mbpd and 2.20mbpd in 2012, 2013 and 2014 to 2,12mbpd, 1.81mbpd and 1.88mbpd in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.“The Nigerian economy also went into recession in the second quarter of 2016 which slowed down general economic activities. Tax revenue collection (CIT and VAT) being a function of economic activities were negatively affected but actual collection of the above two taxes were still higher in 2016 than in 2012 to 2014. “During the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, GDP grew by 4.3%, 5.4% and 6.3% while in 2015, 2016 and 2017, there was a decline in growth to 2.7%, -1.6% and 1.9% respectively. The tax revenue grew as the economy recovered in the second quarter of 2017.” The FIRS chairman said the agency had increased the revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) from 2015 to 2017, which led to approximately 40% increase over 2012-2014 collections. He said: “It is worthy of note that strategies and initiatives adopted in collection of VAT during the period 2015-2017 led to approximately 40% increase over 2012-2014 collections “In 2014, the VAT collected was N802billion, compared to N1.1trillion in 2018. The increase is attributable to various initiatives such as ICT innovations, continuous taxpayer education, tax enlightenment, etc. embarked upon by the Service. “Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that when this administration came on board in August 2015, the target for the two major non-oil taxes were increased by 52% for VAT and 45% for CIT. Notwithstanding the increase, FIRS has in line with the Federal Government’s revenue base diversification strategy has grown the non-oil tax collection by over N1.304trillion (21%) when the total non-oil tax collection for 2016-2018 is compared to that of 2012-2014. “I am confident that our current strategies and initiatives will improve revenue collections and meet the expectations of government.” A source in government said: “The Chief of Staff acted on his own without any directive from the President. If you look at the tone of the query, there was nowhere he said ‘I am directed’. This was why the Presidency came out to clarify that Fowler is not under investigation. “The position of the government is that such observations on revenue are not within the purview of Kyari, whose portfolio is unconstitutional. It is the business of the National Assembly to raise such a query.”

Source: Sundiata Post

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Footballers are known for their flashy lifestyles. Their appetite for cars and expensive jewellery, which are fuelled by the huge sums of money they earn, but behind every successful man, there is a woman, goes a popular saying. Nigerian footballers aren’t different. Solape Lawal-Solarin brings to you the beauties (wives and girlfriends) that have captured the hearts of Nigeria’s top football stars. Mikel’s partner Olga. Mikel’s Russian partner Olga recently caused a stir on social media with reports that she and the couple’s twins Ava and Mia, would no longer visit the Trabzonspor midfielder in Turkey, because of their dislike for the country. The reports stated that Olga was not happy with the 32-year-old’s move to Turkey, adding that the relationship between the couple had gone sour. During Mikel’s time at Chelsea, the couple welcomed their twins in 2015 after dating for two years. Esty Onyekuru. Monaco and Eagles forward Henry Onyekuru didn’t waste time settling down with Esty, his fiancée of many years. Immediately after the Eagles’ third-place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, Onyekuru tied the knots with Esty, mother of his one-year-old son in Benin, Edo State, with a number of his national teammates in attendance. Kenneth Omeruo, Chidozie Awaziem, Oghenekaro Etebo and John Ogu were present at the event alongside Nollywood actor Chinedu Ikedieze popularly known as Aki. Onyekuru completed a £20m move from Everton to Monaco this season. Chioma Omeruo. Kenneth Omeruo married his wife Chioma Nnamani in 2017 and the couple is blessed with a baby girl called Chairein. Less than a year later, Chioma courted controversy when she described Nigerian legend Austin Okocha as a “mad man.” Okocha, a TV pundit for the 2018 World Cup, had blamed Omeruo for Lionel Messi’s goal in the Eagles 2-1 defeat to Argentina on Tuesday, and Chiomawasted no time in hitting back. Chioma then took to her Instagram page to lash out at the former Nigeria captain, saying,“What magic do you want him to do? You mad man.”

Source: Punch

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The Peoples Democratic Party has said the alleged discrepancies in the tax collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Services has confirmed its allegation that the Muhammadu Buhari government is corrupt.
In a letter dated August 8, 2019 and addressed to the FIRS Chairman Babatunde Fowler by the Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari, the FIRS boss was asked to explain the significant variances in budgeted collections and actual collections of tax in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. But in a statement on Monday by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP accused the Presidency of complicity in the alleged discrepancies in the tax collection. Ologbondiyan said, “The party notes that Nigerians are not deceived by the desperation of the agents of the Presidency to cover its complicity by seeking a fall guy in Babatunde Fowler. “The PDP says that a critical study of the leaked correspondence from Abba Kyari to the FIRS chairman in the wake of the revelation of financial discrepancies at FIRS totally betrays the complicity of the cabal in the Presidency. “The correspondence also further confirms that our nation and its economy have been in the strangulating grips of a corrupt cabal, who has evidently hijacked the statutory roles and responsibilities of government agencies, leading to the crippling of our system in the last four years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s misrule.” He added, “The stealing of our taxes by APC agents has brought so much anguish to Nigerians who suffer the brunt of collapsed infrastructure, decaying social amenities and a crippled national economy. “The PDP therefore urges the National Assembly to come to the rescue by holding a public inquest into the handling of the taxes collected by the FIRS in the last four years, take urgent steps to recover the stolen funds and channel such into projects that have direct bearing on the welfare of Nigerians.”

Source: Punch

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The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Anthony Mkpe Ayine, has begun deep engagements with key federal agencies in his efforts to improve the credibility of public finance administration in Nigeria. The interface, which involves sharing knowledge with key stakeholders to aggregate a position that will strengthen revenue management, is also To prep them for revenue assurance and Information Technology audits.
Ayine has so far visited the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) where he spoke about the Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project (FGIP), a collaborative programme of the federal government and the World Bank, which will see his office conduct revenue assurance audit and IT audit on both establishments. Ayine explained the project’s activities and priorities to include strengthening revenue management collection and accounting processes, in addition to strengthening controls and accountability in the use of public funds and sought the cooperation of the FIRS and NCS in granting his office free access to personnel, documents, databases and IT applications for the purpose of the assignment. “Our engagement here is essentially to ensure that the collection of revenue is lawfully made. We will also verify that procedures and checks are in place and properly applied. We will work to ascertain that accounts are duly kept and appropriate remittances are made to the authorized accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said. The Auditor-General added “We will verify and evaluate the efficiency of internal controls and accounting systems and also review where applicable, areas where reforms have been made”. He said further that the essence of the exercise is to improve the revenue of government so as to reduce the heavy financial burden of borrowing on the country. In his remarks, the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Babatunde Fowler, while appreciating the visit, thanked the Auditor-General for his support towards the service and sought his assistance in ensuring that on a monthly basis, VAT and Withholding Tax deducted, are remitted to government. He also spoke on the many reforms undertaken by the FIRS which now makes it easy for anyone to carry out tax activities online without visiting the office or interacting with any official of the service. In the same vein, the Comptroller General of the NCS, Hameed Ibrahim Ali, thanked the Auditor-General for the Resident Auditors who have been of immense benefit to his office and urged for more support in the area of capacity building. He also enumerated various reforms the custom service had introduced to ensure operational efficiency. The FGIP was approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on June 27, 2018 and has four key components, namely: strengthening revenue management, strengthening controls, transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, strengthening economic and fiscal statistics and implementation support. The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is one of five strategic institutions tasked to implement the project. The others are the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Public Procurement.

Source: Daily Sun

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Rafael Nadal will play Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in the US Open semi-finals after the 18-time Grand Slam champion defeated Argentine 20th seed Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 7-5, 6-2. Second seed Nadal — a winner at Flushing Meadows in 2010, 2013 and 2017 — beat a spirited Schwartzman for the eighth time in as many meetings in a nearly three-hour match that finished early Thursday morning. Schwartzman put up firm resistance against Nadal and twice fought back from double-break deficits in the first two sets, but the Spaniard found another gear at crucial moments to secure an eighth semi-final berth in New York. “Straight sets but big challenges especially after the first two sets, having 4-0 and 5-1 and losing both breaks in a row, but I know how good he is when he’s confident,” Nadal said. “I’m so happy how I accepted the situation and challenge and kept going, point after point. Here I am in the semi-finals. I’m super happy, it means everything.” Nadal, who was forced to retire during last year’s semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro, played down concerns over his left forearm as he received treatment early in the third set. “Physically I am fine. Today was a very heavy day, big humidity out there. I’m this kind of player who sweats a little, but sometimes under these conditions it’s tough,” he said. Nadal is the only former major champion left in the men’s field following the elimination of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, leaving him as the clear frontrunner in his pursuit of a 19th major title. Schwartzman, who stands a mere 5ft 7in (1.70m), was bidding to become the shortest Grand Slam semi-finalist since 5-foot-6 Harold Solomon at Roland Garros in 1980. “He’s like a lion in the middle of the jungle. He’s a fighter,” Schwartzman said of Nadal. “He knows how to play the important moments every single time. I played eight times, and every important moment he played better than me.”

Source: Punch

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