By Dipo Olowookere
Names of 500 Nigerians with properties and trusts abroad, who have failed to pay taxes to the Federal Government, have been compiled.
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, disclosed yesterday that government was making efforts to determine their tax compliance status in Nigeria.
She said letters would soon be going out to these Nigerians, including a number of prominent ones, asking them to take advantage of the tax amnesty in order to avoid prosecution and fines by simply paying up their tax defaults.
Mrs Adeosun, while speaking at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Thursday, stated that the affected persons would be advised to take advantage of the Voluntary Assets & Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), which ends in March 2018, to settle past taxation defaults.
Also at the meeting yesterday, an Ad-Hoc Committee of the NEC reported back to the council that a number of revenue-generating agencies may have significantly under remitted returns to the Federation Account.
The council, presided over by the Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, had previously ordered the forensic audit to review remittances of the agencies covering 2010 to May 2015.
While council received an updated interim report at the monthly meeting on Thursday, a final report is awaited next month.
