FIRS Captures 3m New Taxpayers

November 29, 2016
FIRS Captures 3m New Taxpayers

firs-taxpayers

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian tax database has increased by 3 million additional taxpayers in the last few months following efforts by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) boost the country revenue and get more taxable people in the country.

With the new addition, the official number of individuals and enterprises paying tax to the FIRS is now 13,034,22 million.

Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler, who rolled out these figures, explained that the data were derived from all the 36 states Internal Revenue Services and the federal capital territory, Abuja.

He noted that Kano State led the table with over 900,000 new taxpayers, while Lagos had about 300,000 additional taxpayers, followed by Kaduna state.

Mr Fowler, who doubles as Chairman of the Joint Tax Board (JTB), said his agency was already working on a modality that will allow the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to demand tax payment certificate as a criterion for issuance or renewal of passport.

The FIRS boss was speaking in his keynote address on Monday at the 136th stakeholders’ meeting of the JTB held at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, with the theme ‘Increased Inter-agency Co-operation to Enhance Tax Compliance and Optimise Revenue Collection.’

He said at the occasion that the FIRS was also working on establishing an FIRS tax desk in the various ports of the country to ensure that clearing agents do not evade tax payments.

The former Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) boss stressed the need for FIRS, NIS, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to cooperate in order to enhance tax compliance.

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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