The  Board and Management of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) hereby notifies the general public of the activities of fraudsters extorting unsuspecting job seekers under the pretense of getting them jobs in the Service.

Already, these criminally-minded persons have defrauded many innocent Nigerians of their hard-earned money through this illegal scheme. Although some of the perpetrators of this illegal job racketeering have been arrested, the Service wishes to dissociate itself from this recruitment scam.

The Service also wishes to reiterate that whenever it decides to carry out recruitment, adverts and notices would be placed in the appropriate channels,  and due process would be followed. This way, no candidate would be required to pay anything to be employed into the Service.

The general public is therefore advised to be wary of carrying out any cash transactions with anybody or group of persons for the purpose of job placements in the Service, and should also report such to the appropriate authorities.

Please be guided.

Signed:

Muhammad Nami

Executive Chairman

The Federal Government has been advised to explore data and intelligence in order to ease tax collection and improve its revenue base.

Tax experts, speakers, panelists and government functionaries gave the advice at the recently held First Annual National Tax Dialogue,in Abuja, organized by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), with the theme “Taxation in a Post-Covid Economy”.

  In his Keynote Address at the event, President, African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, highlighted the pandemic’s impact on Africa’s economy and the various interventions by the bank and national governments. According to him, Nigeria’s economy shrank “by 3% in 2020 on account of falling oil prices and the effects of the lockdowns on economic activities,” adding that “with shrinkage in oil revenues, debt service payments pose the greatest risk to Nigeria.” 

He stressed further that for Nigeria to overcome the pandemic, “taxes must form a significant percentage of government revenue. Digitalization of tax collection and tax administration is critical to ensure greater transparency of the tax system, widening of the tax base, while mitigating compliance risks and encouraging voluntary tax compliance.”

Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who was chairman of the Dialogue, lauded the FIRS “for its performance in the 2020 fiscal year, despite operating in the most challenging period many of us have experienced. The Service not only collected N4.9 trillion in taxes, achieving 98% of its target; only 30.6% of this was attributed to Petroleum Profits Tax, from what used to be over 50%”.

However, Governor Fayemi urged participants at the event to “interrogate how Nigeria can further deepen the use of technology to improve tax compliance nationally and across subnationals.” He stressed that this was important because “a significant proportion of our population will soon come into the workforce” which is “a golden opportunity to introduce first-time taxpayers to their civic responsibility, by adopting technology.”

Similarly, Executive Secretary, African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), Mr. Logan Wort, harped on the place of technology in generating revenue for the country in a post-Covid economy. Mr. Wort, who joined the Dialogue virtually from South Africa, stated that “Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) is expected to contribute at least 75% to 90% on average per country” in the post-Covid era, adding that Nigeria and other African countries should note that “improved tax revenue will have to take prime position” in the scheme of things.

Mr. Wort urged Nigeria to pay serious attention to e-commerce and the digital economy sector where big, trans-national digital conglomerates like Google, Netflix and Uber operate and make huge, tax-free profits as a possible way of increasing tax revenue generation. He said Nigeria should borrow a leaf from Ghana in e-commerce taxation, which is projected to fetch Ghana $450 million in tax revenue.

In his recap of the keynote address as Chairman of the first panel session, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, urged the AfDB president to support Lagos State as it grappled with the challenges of being the former capital city of Nigeria as well as the issues foisted upon it by the pandemic.

Minister for Communications and Digital Economy,  Dr. Ali Isa Pantami, who chaired the second panel session, stressed that taxpayers should be treated as kings and canvassed better funding of the FIRS.

Nigeria’s first female professor of taxation, Prof.(Mrs) Teju Somorin; President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Prof. Muhammad Mainoma, Member; FIRS Board, Mrs. Adetola Ehile-Aigbangbee; Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr. Mele Kyari; Executive Secretary, African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), Mr. Logan Wort; Mr. Yomi Olugbenro of Deloitte Nigeria, Taiwo Oyedele, Principal Partner, PWC; and Mr. Tajudeen Akande of PKF served as discussants on the panels of discussion at the Dialogue. 

  Among others, both panels of discussion unanimously agreed and resolved that tax administration should leverage on technology across the entire taxpayer identification, registration and filing process to ease compliance and administration. Also, discussants made a strong case to link the National Identification Number (NIN) with the taxation processes.

 The panelists observed that the funding threshold established for the FIRS in 2007 was no longer adequate for the Service to discharge its functions optimally. Consequently, they urged the Federal Government to increase funding support for the FIRS so that the Service can complete work on its 17-Storey Revenue House Headquarters in Abuja where it planned to establish a data centre based on proprietary technology.    

While delivering the vote of thanks, Minister of State, Finance, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clement Agba, noted that the theme of the Dialogue “is most appropriate, timely and apt”, stressing that “this national dialogue has understandably witnessed a torrent of ideas, information, statistics, interpretation and vision on how best we can improve on solving the current revenue challenges of the government”.

He added: “The role of the media in strategically communicating our thoughts to the people cannot be over-empasised. It is therefore very important that the views expressed here today are disseminated to the wider readership and audience and clearly this task has been in the very capable hands of the men and women of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to whom we owe our gratitude.”

Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad

Director Communications and Liaison

Federal Inland Revenue Service

The Finance Bill 2020 has been signed into law. The new law introduces over 80 amendments to 14 different laws and takes effect from 1st January 2021.

View the Finance Act 2020

The Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria have also issued various palliatives to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on the economy. The FIRS will require full cooperation and support from all our taxpayers in order to collect revenue that Government will utilise to continue to provide infrastructure, health services and other palliatives to all Nigerians.

On our part, we will continue to work with relevant agencies of Government to provide necessary reliefs to taxpayers to lessen the impact of this pandemic on businesses and other economic activities by taxpayers. To this end, we are offering the following palliatives to our taxpayers:

1 The FIRS is extending the timeline for filing of value added tax and withholding tax to the last working day of the month, following the month of deduction.

2 The due date for filing Companies Income Tax returns is hereby extended by one month.

3 Tax payers already registered on e-filing platform are at liberty to submit all returns via efiling.firs.gov.ng, alternatively please submit your returns to: For:

a) Large taxpayers – oil & gas (Upstream) = ltoupstream@firs.gov.ng
b) Large taxpayers – oil & gas (Downstream) = ltodownstream@firs.gov.ng
c) Large taxpayers – oil & gas (Servicing) = ltoservicing@firs.gov.ng
d) Large taxpayers – non oil (financial) = ltononoilfinancial@firs.gov.ng
e) Large taxpayers – non oil (Manufacturing) = ltononoilmanufacturing@firs.gov.ng
 f) Large taxpayers – Abuja= ltoabuja@firs.gov.ng
g) Large taxpayers – Kano= ltokano@firs.gov.ng
h) large taxpayers – Ibadan= ltoibadan@firs.gov.ng
i) Large taxpayers – Port Harcourt= ltoportharcourt@firs.gov.ng
j) All Medium taxpayers = mto@firs.gov.ng
k) All Small and Micro taxpayers = msto@firs.gov.ng
l) All Government Business taxpayers = mto@firs.gov.ng
j) All Stamp Duty taxpayers = stampduty@firs.gov.ng

​4 Taxpayers who wish to file their returns with the FIRS without an audited account can file same, provided that the relevant audited accounts are submitted unfailingly within two months after the revised due date of filing.

5 The FIRS also intend to publish on its website, information requests for desk reviews and tax audits, and create a portal where such information can be uploaded to our database for online access review.

The Management and Board of the FIRS will continue to monitor the situation and abide by the federal, state and local authorities’ instructions on COVID-19. Be rest assured that we will constantly update you on developments, that may affect your businesses, well-being and the Service. In addition, where the need arises, appropriate action would be taken by Management if the situation portends immediate threat to you, our staff and visitors to our offices.

The humankind has surmounted various challenges throughout history, and we believe that COVID-19 is not an exception. As we draw strength and hope from each other, let us continue to pray for the safety of all Health Workers, Doctors and Scientists, trying to develop a vaccine for this virus. The Management and Board of the FIRS is confident that we will emerge stronger as a Race from this experience.

I pray for your safety and that of your loved ones, and trust that you will be vigilant and keep yourself, family members and friends safe.

Thank you all