The Federal Inland Revenue Service has called on all Nigerians and others residents in the country to make sure that documents relating to rent or lease agreements for their homes or offices, as well as Certificates of Occupancy, must be authenticated with the new FIRS Adhesive Stamp Duty.
The Service also said that other common instruments relating to business transactions must be subjected to the same rule.
It said these in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by the Director, Communications and Liaison Department, Abdullahi Ahmad.
Ahmad said the move became imperative so as to give these instruments the required legal backing that would make them legally bidding on all parties involved in such transactions.
Recall that the new FIRS Adhesive Stamp Duty was launched in Abuja on Tuesday during the official inauguration of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Audit and Recovery of Back Years Stamp Duties.
The statement quoted the Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Nami, to have said that chargeable transactions under the Stamp Duties Act, as amended in the Finance Act 2019, were in two categories.
The categories are Fixed Duty Instruments and Ad-Valorem Instruments.
The FIRS Boss gave the chargeable transactions under the Fixed Duty Instruments to include Power of Attorney, Certificate of Occupancy, Proxy form, Appointment of Receiver, Memorandum of Understanding, Joint Venture Agreements, Guarantor’s form, and Ordinary Agreements Receipts.
For ad-Valorem Instruments chargeable under the Stamp Duties Act, he listed them to include Deed of Assignment, Sales Agreement, Legal Mortgage or Debentures, Tenancy or Lease Agreements, Insurance Policies, Contract Agreements, Vending Agreement, Promissory Notes, Charter-Party, and Contract Notes.
He said, “Stamp duty is basically charged in two forms, either ad valorem, where duty payable is a percentage of the consideration on an instrument or a fixed sum, irrespective of the consideration on dutiable instrument or document.
“The FIRS enjoins members of the public to make sure that any of the above-listed instruments they give or receive in the course of their business or official transactions have the new FIRS Adhesive Stamp Duty affixed or stamped on them to authenticate or legalise such Instruments.”
Nami pointed out that the new FIRS Adhesive Stamp Duty was available in all FIRS offices nationwide.
