FIRS to Start VAT, Withholding Tax Compliance Exercise in July

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has stated that it would embark on a nationwide Value Added Tax (VAT) and withholding tax compliance exercise from July 2022.

This is according to the Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman, FIRS (Media & Communication), Mr Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola.

The information was contained in a public notice announcing the compliance monitoring exercise, and signed by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Mr Muhammad Nami.

The exercise is coming on the heels of an earlier notice by the agency to commence the enforcement and recovery of unremitted tax deductions owed the federation by some states and local governments.

The VAT and Withholding Tax Compliance Monitoring exercise will involve teams of FIRS officers visiting selected taxpayers and taxable persons to review their VAT and withholding tax records.

“The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) shall embark on a nationwide VAT and WHT compliance monitoring exercise with effect from July 1, 2022,” a part of the notice read.

“As a result, teams of officers from the service shall visit selected taxpayers, taxable persons (including companies, NGOs or MDAs) to review their VAT and WHT records,” it added.

In the notice, Mr Nami also highlighted that the exercise will cover from 2016 to 2020 accounting years for taxable persons whose records have been audited by the service up to the 2015 accounting year.

He, however, noted that for taxpayers whose records have not been audited by the tax body up to 2015, the exercise will be extended to include the prior years that have not been tax audited.

The organisation also called on all taxable persons and tax agents to immediately remit deductions of VAT and withholding tax they have made on its behalf.

“All taxable persons or tax agents who have made deductions of VAT or WHT on behalf of the Service are required to immediately remit all such deductions to the FIRS within two weeks of this publication,” the FIRS said.

The notice also stated that those who would be visited during the monitoring exercise will be notified and informed of the required documents for review beforehand.