Tobi Aminu

DMS and website provider Click Dealer has been officially included in HMRC’s ‘Software in Development’ list for submitting VAT returns digitally. Through its award winning ClickDMS software, Click Dealer is now ideally suited to help dealers comply with the new ‘Making Tax Digital’ regulations. For dealers over the £85,000 VAT threshold, all VAT periods that began on or after April 1, 2019, are required to be filed via a HMRC recognized platform, either by the dealers directly, or through their appointed accountants. Click Dealer is now warning that time is of the essence for those dealers that have not yet decided how they are going to comply with HMRC’s new regulations. The main difference ‘Making Tax Digital for VAT’ brings for UK dealers is that the software must be capable of keeping and maintaining the records specified in the regulations. This software must also facilitate preparation of their VAT Returns using the information maintained in digital records and communicate with HMRC digitally via its Application Programming Interface (API) platform. From April 1, 2019, dealers who sign up to ‘Making Tax Digital for VAT’ (or agents signing up on behalf of dealer clients) need software that allows them to submit VAT Returns and keep records of sales and purchases. In recent times, it has become commonplace for dealers’ records and accounts to be stored digitally, utilizing software programmes on computers, tablets, Smartphone applications, or even maintaining them through these devices and storing them by using a cloud-based application. As ClickDMS is already setup and ready to assist dealers with meeting the ‘Making Tax Digital for VAT’ regulations, the independent dealer performance partner can help dealers to comply with the new VAT notice straightaway. If dealer’s digital records are up to date, ClickDMS will be able to collate and prepare their returns. Via one simple push of a button, ClickDMS displays the return and asks dealers to declare that it is correct, before confirming that they want to submit it to HMRC. Dealers will then receive confirmation that they have submitted their return successfully. Click Dealer director and head of customer care Pippa Rawlinson, pictured, said: ‘We’ve been working hard in the background to ensure that ClickDMS is setup to make compliance with HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital for VAT’ regulations as easy as possible for our dealers. ‘The process we now have in place ensures a seamless journey for dealers, who can submit their VAT digitally by the click of a button within ClickDMS. ‘Our dealers can rest assured that we will help them every step of the way, we don’t do fear mongering and will work with them to ensure that they remain compliant!’   Source: Magazine 

The Rivers State Internal Revenue Service said on Monday that it would soon begin to collect taxes from roadside traders and others from the informal sector in the state. Chairman of RIRS, Adoage Norteh, who disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt, explained that the agency was planning to meet with various trade groups, including transporters and petty traders, to sensitise them on the decision. Norteh pointed out that the agency would collaborate with the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Environment, State Waste Management Agency and other relevant agencies, in order to actualise the new tax plan. He insisted that collecting tax from roadside traders and others in the informal sector would not amount to double taxation and added that no trader would be harassed as hoodlums would not be allowed to be part of those on tax drive. He said, “The idea of this meeting this morning is to unveil the new tax plan that we intend to carry out. It is not like we are not continuing with what we are doing, but we are going to face the informal sector. “The informal sector is where most of these people that do not have organised businesses belong. The challenge we have had in our system is that not a lot of persons understand what tax is. “People think that tax is for some people, especially those who are working. For those who work in the media, your tax is deducted when your salary is being paid. But for the person who is in the informal sector and makes more money than those working; he thinks he should not pay tax. “The other part is that there is a lot of confusion over what is a tax and a levy. If you have to pay something for putting your store somewhere, that is not a tax; that is a levy. If you like, call it dues for putting your store there. Describing multiple taxations as a thing of the past in Rivers, Norteh noted that the state would never engage in multiple taxations. “There is a lot of noise about multiple taxations. In the Rivers State Revenue Service, we don’t engage in multiple taxations. “Multiple taxations have become a thing of the past since we came on board. We insist that people should not be harassed provided they do the right thing,” the RIRS chairman added.   Source: Investor

The Federal Government on Monday said the new Tax Identification Number Registration system would boost the total number of taxpayers in the country to about 45 million. Mr Oseni Elamah, the Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board, disclosed this during the presentation of the new TIN registration system report to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, who also doubles as JTB Chairman, Mr Tunde Fowler. Elamah attributed the improvement to the collaborative efforts between the JTB and the State Internal Revenue Services. He said the integration of the databases across government organisations in the country would raise the number of individual and corporate taxpayers to around 45 million. The total number of taxpayers in the country was put at 19 million as at the end of December 2018. He further revealed that the JTB new TIN Registration System, which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations would help enhance the organisation. He said, “The registration and recording of taxpayer information is one of the fundamental functions of tax administration and to a great extent, this will drive how other core administrative functions operate. “The timely and accurate collection and recording of basic identifying information of the taxpayer will permit the tax administrator to understand its taxpayer base, the staff itself accordingly and to effectively plan other core administration functions. “The existence of an accurate taxpayer database will inevitably lead to effective compliance programmes observation.” According to the board, the new TIN system leveraged on existing database of taxpayers from organisations such as banks through the Bank Verification Number, National Identity Card Management Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission and others. Speaking on the new TIN system, Tunde Fowler, said the new system would ease the process of payment for taxpayers. He said, “When the integration of the new TIN Registration System is launched, it will afford prospective taxpayers the opportunity to register for tax from the comfort of their homes and print their registration certificate. “We now have a consolidated database for all taxpayers in Nigeria. If a taxpayer goes to any other country or visit another state in Nigeria and they want to check your tax status, what this means is that they can check your tax status by a touch of a button. “We want to assure all taxpayers that we are ready to serve them more with technology, convenience and accountability.”   Source: Investor

Maybe, you know the poem, “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost; for want of a rider, the battle was lost; for want of a battle, the freedom was lost; and all for the loss of a horse shoe nail.” If so, you might appreciate the disincentive that may be inflicted on the Federal Government’s export promotion drives if delays in the processing of the Export Expansion Grant available to a certain category of exporters continue. Qualified beneficiaries get a Debt Management Office promissory note of a maximum of 15 per cent of the value of their exports, which they can use “to pay all taxes, (including company tax, and value added tax, but excluding personal income tax), (and) offset government loans (from government agencies like Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Export-Import Bank).” The EEG promissory note can also be applied “to buy government bonds; (and settle indebtedness to the Federal Government’s) Assets Management Company of Nigeria.” A beneficiary can take 100 per cent of the grant at a go. To qualify for this rebate, beneficiaries must have “registered with (both) the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Nigeria Export Promotion Council; exported Nigeria-originated products or services; and carried out formal exports with repatriation of proceeds into (a) Nigerian bank account with confirmation by the CBN.” The intention of this scheme is to cushion the effect of infrastructure deficits which tend to increase overall unit costs of manufactures in Nigeria. It is a non-cash scheme that is operated via the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate, or promissory note. The advantage of non-cash promissory note that is acceptable to government agencies is that, whereas government will not have to pay cash, the promissory note can be used to offset payments, like tax, due to government. The note is negotiable because it is transferable to third parties. So, beneficiaries can assign the instrument to their creditors, who can also use it to offset statutory payments to government agencies. When used to offset tax, it becomes a fiscal policy. It is truly a win-win for government, the beneficiaries, and the economy. Another advantage of the scheme is increased foreign exchange earnings, which translate to conservation of Nigeria’s foreign reserves. The EEG was introduced in 1986, via the Export Incentives and Miscellaneous Act, to diversify Nigeria’s export base from crude oil, to non-oil products, especially in the agricultural and allied sub-sector of the economy. Maybe, as a result of abuse, the scheme was suspended by the President Goodluck Jonathan government in 2014. But the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration reinstated it to diversify the export base of Nigeria. There are allegations that there are challenges in granting rebates that the National Assembly has approved for qualified exporters and beneficiaries of the statutory EEG that is domiciled in the Nigeria Export Promotion Council. In the manner of a man finding the easiest way to take a bull round a china shop without breaking the wares, Segun Awolowo, Executive Director of NEPC, noted that the National Assembly approved the first batch of promissory notes for the export grant in January 2019. He then tippy-toed to find a nice, non-threatening, way to appeal to the DMO “to ensure the completion of the programme within the shortest possible time,” before the next batch of authorizations is processed for approval by the National Assembly. He revealed that the claims cover “backlogs of 10 years (2007 to 2016) for 270 companies, with a total value of… N195,089,234,808.64, (which he believes), will bring succor to the export sector in particular, and the economy in general.” The estimated amount outstanding is N1.3trn. Awolowo added that Pre-Shipment Inspection Agency and Nigerian Bureau of Statistics figures indicate that “there was a growth of 48.43% from $1.204billion in 2016 to $1.787billion in 2017, (in Nigeria’s export business, and) it further went up by 27.22% equivalent to $2.274billion in 2018.” He is hoping “that exports for 2019 will grow by about 40 per cent,” if promissory note settlements are done early enough. But it looks as if something or somebody is holding up the process. The DMO is allegedly shifting the goalpost of the EEG by introducing what it calls Reverse Auction, which simply means that the beneficiaries have to yield a discount on their accumulated promissory note rebates. Traditionally, Reverse Auction occurs when several sellers submit increasingly lower bids to one buyer, instead of the other way round, where several buyers submit increasingly higher bids to one seller. This was not originally on the cards, and the beneficiaries claim that the Reversed Auction will affect their cash flows, and compromise their capacity to service debts incurred in the export transactions. Some tax experts regard this as an indirect tax, and added to the multiple taxation suffered by Nigerian businesses. The beneficiaries had worked with the figures that the DMO now wants to fiddle with, and lament that it may discourage the export promotion drive of the Federal Government. The DMO doesn’t seem to have said much to clarify its position. As you already know, the EEG is the NEPC’s way of supporting “active exporters (in) expanding their international business… through exports of existing products in new and current markets. It is essentially a post-shipment incentive designed to expand the volume of export goods and commodities, other than crude oil, and improve global competitiveness of Nigerian products.” Even though the scheme is a programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, it is also supported and co-funded by the European Union and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The scheme resonates with the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan of the President Buhari government, which is to “accelerate non-oil revenue generation (for the government and people of Nigeria).” The ERGP’s broad objective is “to tackle the obstacles hindering the competitiveness of Nigerian businesses, notably poor or non-existent infrastructural facilities and the difficult business environment. It