FIRS Gives 30-Day Grace for Tax Clearance Certificate

By Dipo Olowookere

The new Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Muhammad Nami, has approved a 30- day window to enable taxpayers in the country obtain Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC).

This information was announced by the tax agency in a statement personally signed by the tax chief and then issued on Sunday via the official Twitter page of the organisation.

Mr Nami, in the statement titled Facilitating 2020 Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) Issuance, explained that this move was designed to make things easy for taxpayers and assist them meet their obligations as they might need TCC.

The Executive Chairman noted that the offer to ease issuance of TCC was in accordance with the provisions of Section 101 (1) of CITA LFN 2004 and in conformity with Self-Assessment Regulation, 2011.

He warned though that FIRS will not fail to invoke the provisions of the law, including enforcement and imposition of lien should it be apparent that a taxpayer has misled the FIRS to issue a TCC.

“Following the numerous complaints received from our esteemed taxpayers with respect to difficulties encountered before obtaining Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) and the fact that taxpayers need TCC to enable them to, inter alia, seek and obtain contracts and loans, renew permits, registrations, franchises, agreements and/or licenses that will invariably generate revenue from which taxes will be paid, management has looked into the above complaints and has taken steps to ease the process of obtaining TCC.

“Consequently, notice is hereby given that the service has put in place machinery to issue 2020 TCC for all eligible taxpayers from January 2, to January 31, 2020.

“The service may not hesitate to use enforcement activities including imposition of lien on bank accounts of such defaulting companies to recover any outstanding debts when it discovers that the taxpayer has misled the service in her duty to observe tax compliance.

“The issuance of TCC to ease the burden of taxpayers is in line with the provisions of Section 101 (1) of CITA LFN 2004 and in conformity with Self-Assessment Regulation, 2011.

“Taxpayers are, therefore, encouraged to take advantage of this initiative and apply for their 2020 TCC, as soon as possible.”