…as more evaders rush to pay ahead deadline
More taxpayers have paid over N30 billion as they declared their indebtedness under the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme of the Federal Government in less than five days to the end of the exercise.
Investigations revealed that over 500 individual and corporate tax debtors had approached the Federal Internal Revenue Services and VAIDS office in the Federal Ministry of Finance in the last one week.
A source at the FIRS office in Abuja, who prefered anonymity because he is not permitted to talk to the media officially, told our correspondent that over 50 people rushed to their office and other outlets every day in the last week.
He said, “Most of them made enquiries on how to declare their previously unpaid taxes before the windows shut on March 31. They are scared as they were not expecting us to find their hidden assets and incomes from sources like other revenue collecting agencies, electricity generating companies, land registries, Corporate Affairs Commission and other payment platforms, among others.
“We have written letters to some Nigerians, whose lifestyles do not match their taxes, inviting them to take advantage of the tax amnesty scheme in order to spread payment over a maximum three-year period without interests or sanctions, but most of them, especially politicians, ignored the call.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, has insisted that the agency is not considering shifting the deadline as the government has given a grace period of nine months, from July 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, to tax defaulters to voluntarily pay back to the government what they owe.
Fowler stated that as the scheme was approaching the deadline, there were lots of people who would take advantage of the scheme.
He said, “On the federal level, people have declared and paid taxes; and one thing I will let you know is that, based on the experiences of other countries, usually people wait till the last minute.
“In terms of applications received at the federal level, about 262 applications have paid and people are still in the process of putting together their facts and in the next two or three weeks, the figures will be different.”
He added that the government had identified properties worth over N2trillion in Abuja, whose owners were not paying taxes.
“We have identified properties worth N2trillion that belong to corporate organisations that have never filed any tax return and now we are in the process of getting a court order to start selling those properties, if the owners do not come and pay the taxes,” he said.
