FIRS allays fears over tax reform, denies new taxes

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has allayed fears over tax reforms that would lead to new taxing systems, stating the revenue agency was not planning new taxes.

Chairman of FIRS, Zacch Adedeji, stated this at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance at the National Assembly Abuja on Tuesday.

Reacting to a series of questions by members of the Senate committee led by Senator Sani Musa, he emphasised that

tax reform laws would not entail introduction of new taxes or increase of already existing ones.

Adedeji said the current taxes paid by Nigerians would rather reduced, adding that no agency will be merged in the process of carrying out the reform and no job will be taken from anybody.

“The tax reform basically seeks to increase the simplicity and efficiency of tax administration in Nigeria,” he said.

According to him, the existing tax policies introduced by President Bola Tinubu are not meant to tax poverty but prosperity, fruits and not seeds, returns and not investments.

On the executive bills already forwarded to both chambers of the National Assembly for legalising the reform, the FIRS boss said: “The four bills which are (i) Nigeria Tax Bill , (ii) Nigeria Tax Administration Act (Amendment) Bill, (iii) Nigeria Revenue Service Bill, and (iv) Joint Revenue Board (Establishment ) Bill, when passed into law, would among others, help to harmonise the multiple tax laws in the country, drive efficiency and modernisation, simplify tax laws and ensure synergy among agencies involved, increase efficiency and effectiveness in government savings, promote transparency and integrity in revenue collection, align with international standards, broaden Nigeria’s tax base etc. ”

When asked to explain why FIRS, as contained in one of the bills, would be changed to Nigeria Revenue Service, NRS, the Chief Tax Collector said the present name of the agency does not cover the scope of its services, like the Value Added Tax, VAT, 85 per cent of which according to him, are remitted to states while the federal government gets the remaining 15 per cent.

In his remarks, the chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa said the purpose of the interactive session was to be updated by the FIRS boss on what and what the tax reform bills are aiming at.

“Tax reforms lie at the heart of government agenda and requires constructive inputs from all stakeholders,” he said.