NRS Eyes Full Tax Compliance by 2028

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) is targeting compliance from all eligible Nigerians by 2028 following the implementation of the country’s new tax regime.

Speaking on the sidelines of the e-Invoicing Compliance Workshop, organised by eTranzact, Project Manager for the e-Invoicing Implementation of NRS, Mr Mohammed Bawa, said that before the enforcement, NRS will do a three-month engagement with stakeholders to sensitise them on the implications of evading the new tax law.

“We will do a secondary engagement for three months for the first quarter. We’ll do a pilot for another three months before we can now announce the goal line. And then, towards the end of the year and January next year, we will now enforce the compliance,” he said.

According to the project manager, NRS is putting everything in place in readiness for the implementation and enforcement, including an engagement portal for taxpayers.

“And we also, on the NRS side, are providing so many channels for taxpayers to reach out. We are coming up with a simulation portal that will allow the taxpayers to simulate the generation and transmission of the invoice, even before they begin the implementation. We have an engagement portal on our website where you can schedule an engagement with us to answer as many questions as you want.

“So, we are reaching out. The engagement is continuous, and we will continue to improve the system based on the feedback we receive. With respect to infrastructure, the NRS is fully ready. We have bought additional servers to address connectivity issues and data storage issues, and we’ll continue to do that.

“So, we don’t expect all taxpayers to comply at the same time. So, as we continue to implement, more taxpayers are joining, and we’ll continue to improve the system, increase the capacity, and address some of these challenges until we arrive at our destination. So, for a complete transition, we are looking at the end of 2027, precisely January 2028.

“There’s a public notice that was signed by the NRS today, which has given different dates for the different sectors. So, this year, we are going to be focused on medium taxpayers with turnover between N5 billion and N1 billion,” Mr Bawa stated.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of e-Transact, Mr Abubakar Achimogo, said that the essence of eTranzact intervention is to ensure the digitalisation of the process.

“What we are moving away from is the manual cards process, from the manual process to the digitalisation of the process of non-collections. And the platform is also very seamless.

“It is very user-friendly, regardless of your literacy level, and it’s good. This will also protect the average Nigerian from multiple taxes. In this particular case, as you are inputting and processing, you’re actually getting a notification saying exactly what you have paid for, and documenting that process as well. For e-Transact, we have multiple application channels.

“So, it’s very seamless, and I don’t think there’s any challenge with that,” Mr Achimogo noted.