In view of the reports from the field offices that the acronyms TIN and U-TIN are being confused by FIRS staff and the general public, it has become necessary to issue a clarification on same. Both TIN and U-TIN are codes used to uniquely identify taxpayers within the existing Database. The only difference between the two acronyms is that, TIN refers to the Taxpayer Database on FIRS WEBPORTAL, while U-TIN is related to the National Taxpayer Database currently being developed by the Joint Tax Board (JTB) under the U-TIN Project. This clarification is further strengthened by the following definitions:

·         TIN is the acronym for Taxpayer Identification Number. It is a code that is electronically assigned to every tax payer registered within the FIRS database for the purpose of identification of taxpayers.

·         U-TIN is the acronym for Unique Taxpayer Identification Number. It is a code adopted by the U-TIN Project Committee to uniquely identify any taxpayer in the National Taxpayer Database which covers the three-tiers of tax administration.