Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has emphasised that the March 31 deadline for filing annual tax returns by individuals will not be extended.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the agency implored taxpayers to quickly file their tax details before the expiration to avoid sanctions as stipulated by the laws of the state.
The obligation to file annual tax returns is stipulated in Section 41 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA).
The provision makes it mandatory for all taxable person(s) to file a return of aggregate income from all sources for the preceding year with the state tax authority in which they are deemed resident within 90 days from the commencement of every new year of assessment.
The Executive Chairman of the tax regulatory body, Mr Ayodele Subair, said all individual taxpayers, including self-employed persons and employees under the PAYE Scheme in Lagos State, must take advantage of the remaining days in March to file their annual tax returns to avoid payment of penalties, as well as other statutory sanctions, which may include prosecution.
He stated that LIRS has in the last 3 months engaged taxpayers, using various mediums to remind them of their statutory obligations as provided in the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) Cap P8 2011 (as amended), warning that the agency is therefore set to use the full weight of the law in ensuring taxpayers who fail to meet this obligation are brought to book.
“Filing of tax returns in Lagos State can only be done on the LIRS eTax portal using: https://etax.lirs.net. It is therefore mandatory for all taxable persons in the State to register on the eTax portal, which is built purposely for the convenience of taxpayers. eTax is easy, convenient and safe,” Mr Subair said.
As part of its quest to ease compliance obligations for tax filing, tax officers have been designated at various tax stations to assist individuals to carry out online registration and filing of tax returns on the e-Tax portal.
