FG to scrutinise panama papers, wikileaks, BVN, CAC documents, others

By Moses Ebosele, ebosele@hotmail.com –

Determined to trackdown highprofile tax defaulters in Nigeria, the Federal Government is to study revelations contained in the panama papers and wikileaks especially as it relates to Nigerian firms and individuals.

Speaking at an interactive session with Business owners on the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) in Lagos on Thursday, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun said: “There is no more hiding place for tax defaulters”.

Explaining further at the forum put together by PwC, Adeosun said an international firm has been engaged by the Federal Government to trace the assets of very wealthy Nigerians at home and abroad.

The Minister also confirmed that the names of 150 very wealthy Nigerians are on the list for the first batch of the exercise.

According to the Minister, the investigators would rely on information derived from Panama papers, wikileaks, Bank Verification Number (BVN), records of property ownership, records of foreign exchange allocation, and records of company ownership from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), available financial informations, among others.

Advertisements

The Minister said: “There is no more hiding place. It’s a matter of law. The investigators’ findings will enable us compare the income and how much tax the company/person is really paying.

“We look at your tax returns. If you registered Mercedes E-Class and you are paying N100,000 tax, then something is wrong. Those are red flags. We now have the capacity to assess people accurately,” she added

She added: “How much we recover from their purses is not as important as getting people into the tax net and paying the right taxes. Majority of people who are paying taxes at the moment are the Pay As You Earn; most of the people whose taxes are being deducted at source. But the people who are evading taxes are either the people who own their businesses or the high net worth individuals”.

Also commenting Mr. Ayo Subair, Executive Chairman, LIRS said: “We have seen the positive impact taxpayers’ money can make at the state level in terms of social services, administration of government and infrastructure development. So we are fully supportive of this initiative and we are ready to assist as many taxpayers who would like to take advantage of the Scheme to remediate their tax affairs,”

According to Taiwo Oyedele, Head of Tax at PwC Nigeria, “Paying taxes is not particularly easy anywhere in the world for anyone who has expended time, energy and other resources to earn the income. However, it is necessary for there to be an organised society for the benefit of all. We organised this session to discuss the background, design and structure of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), key objectives, legal framework and the step-by-step process for declaration, remediation and resolution. We also highlighted the benefits and assurances available under VAIDS and post-implementation enforcement and sanctions”.

Earlier in his welcome address at the session, Uyi Akpata, Country Senior Partner, PwC Nigeria said: “This session and indeed the renewed interest and policy direction on taxation by this administration is a positive development for the transformation of our economy. At PwC, we have consistently made the point that reliance on oil as the main source of government revenue was not sustainable and that other forms of revenue generation such as taxation must be explored for Nigeria to build a truly viable economy and reach all of its potential. On taxation, we have over time advocated various initiatives to broaden the tax base, reform the tax laws, and improve the ease of paying taxes so we are happy that some of these ideas are beginning to take life.”