Tobi Aminu

The new national Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) registration system and consolidated tax database will ensure value addition to tax revenue administration and facilitate the ease of doing business, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said. The system, which consolidates individual and corporate taxpayers’ records, provides a unique identity to the taxpayer as the foundation of the country’s automated tax administration system. The Chairman of FIRS, Tunde Fowler, said the system is a web-based solution offering access to authorised users to initiate TIN request from the comfort of their homes/offices real-time online, verify tax status and print TIN certificates. Mr Fowler said the system assures timely and accurate collection and recording of basic identification data. It also permits the tax administrator to understand its taxpayer base for effective revenue projections and planning, he added. He was speaking at the official launch of the new system by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday in Abuja. The FIRS Chairman, who is also the Chairman of the Joint Tax Board, said with tax administration in the 21st century evolving into a systematic and deliberate process based on availability of accurate and reliable data, the new system will ensure the identification of individuals and businesses. He said available tax records through the system would not only be credible and reliable, “they would be readily accessible under a secure environment, online and real time”. “For the revenue potentials of the country to be maximally harnessed, it is essential that credible and reliable data is available for use,” he said. Ease of doing business. Such records, he said, are essential to facilitate the ease of doing business and to help Nigeria achieve its economic objectives in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). RIPAN Campaign AD. Other benefits of the new system, Mr Fowler said, include boosting efficiency and ensuring coordinated and systematic approach towards managing revenue generation and tax information sharing between tax authorities in and outside the country. He said the consolidated database limits the incidences of double taxation. It also serves as a prerequisite for the sale and purchase of immovable property, registration of vehicles, applications for plots of land, import and export licence, registration as a contractor, and entry visas. Mr Fowler said the system has potentials to help the FIRS increase its tax base from the current 20 million taxpayers to about 45 million before the end of the third quarter of 2019. Leverage, synergy. The Executive Secretary, JTB, Oseni Elamah, said the new system leverages on existing data from relevant identity management agencies to reduce the burden of multiple registration of taxpayers, ensure seamless integration and exchange of information among the various tax authorities. Mr Elamah said the new system will ensure the process of domestic tax-revenue administration meets up with the developing trends in information and communication technology.   Source: Premium Time

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed all business data generating agencies in the country to furnish the Joint Tax Board (JTB) with all vital information necessary for its activities. This is as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) plans to get 45 million Nigerians into the tax net by September. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who dropped the order yesterday in Abuja, listed the agencies concerned as Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). He disclosed this after launching the JTB for Tax Identification Number (TIN) Registration System. “All the agencies involved with generation of business data have been directed by the president to immediately collaborate with the JTB with the provision of necessary information to enable it capture accurate tax database of Nigeria. “This has become necessary because the new TIN registration system is in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of this administration. “There is a tendency that foreign investors would not have implicit confidence in your own economy, if the level of domestic investment is not encouraging. That is why the new TIN registration system has been introduced to help tax-payers and other stakeholders easily verify their TIN online. The service also enables tax-payers to print their TIN certificate or send it to their emails,” Prof. Osinbajo stated. Earlier, the JTB chairman, who is also chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, had declared that with the launch of the new TIN registration system, the service would, before the end of the third quarter, raise the tax base to 45 million. “We believe that with the new TIN registration system, we will be reinforcing the laudable efforts of this administration towards building a robust tax revenue administration system, promoting a tax-friendly environment and ensuring a sustainable and inclusive economy for all Nigerians. “During the first tenure of this government, we expanded the tax base from 10 million to 20 million with the potential for an increase to 45 million before the end of the third quarter of 2019,” Fowler said. According to him, for the first time in history, the federal government paid all outstanding Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax liabilities owed by federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) from 2002 to 2016, totalling N135.8 billion to the various state governments. “We hope that this gesture will encourage state governments to also promptly remit all withholding taxes and Value Added Tax (VAT) due to the federation account.”   Source: Guardian

Mr. Babatunde Fowler, Chairman, Joint Tax Board (JTB) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), explains to select journalists, how the new tax identification number registration system, scheduled for launch on Monday, will bring convenience to the taxpayer, boost tax compliance and revenue collection. Olaoluwakitan Babatunde was there There is a plan by the Joint Tax Board, which you chair, to introduce a new a New Tax Identification Number (TIN) Registration system. What is this about? We call it a new TIN Registration process and will be launched by the Vice President on 1 July. Before now, we have had people undergoing training on how to utilise this. And what this system basically does is to take information already in our system plus what we have in our national tax database. So once it is launched, we have to run it and have it come on the national database for the whole nation, both for companies and individuals. What this implies is that if you have a tax clearance in Kano State, for example, and you are coming to Lagos for transaction, instead of the man in Lagos confirming your tax clearance documents that you brought from Kano, he only needs to click the button and everything shows live. That is what the system does. The system brings innovation, convenience and transparency to tax authorities and taxpayers by enabling tax authorities efficiently manage their taxpayer base, while enabling taxpayers to view, retrieve and update their tax profiles at the comfort of their homes or offices. The new JTB TIN will be universal throughout the country and can be used by taxpayers to pay for any tax type. This reduces the burden of having to register for multiple TIN numbers from different tax authorities and states, as it lever ages on the biometrics we’ve got on BVN, from tax agencies, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). So it brings in all onto a common platform. It also notifies taxpayer through a robust and secure system-to-system integration. What are the benefits to tax authorities? Clearly, the benefit would be convenience and transparency. If you are resident in one state and you go to transact business in another state, say, quote for a contract, it is in the law that part of the criteria is to have a tax clearance certificate. Immediately, an officer in the ministry will check if the individual name or your company name and your tax data are clearly are available. On the other side, if you have underpaid, like you paid a N100, 000 in Ogun State and you want to buy a property in Lagos for N10 million, the man clicks the button and asks how you can afford a N10 million property in Lagos based on the income on which you paid a tax of N100,000. So basically, it is a situation that is open and provides the taxpayer and the tax administrator with the same knowledge. So, it is not a matter of you trying to tell the tax official I pay adequate tax or for the tax official to demand inducement for tax clearance. How much trust can the taxpayer have in this new system and does it completely remove the need to physically visit tax offices? You don’t have to because we do all these things online. Now when you talk about trust, basically what the system does is to keep all your tax payments. And that currently operates in Lagos, which is one of the few states where it operates. Any payment in Lagos State, for example, over the last five years or six years, is available at the click of a button. This is what we have done with this new system.   So even for some states that do not have the capacity of the financial muscle to do it, we have put it all together in one place. So, once you key into that system, you have the same benefit as the taxpayer.   Source: This day