By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A total N650 billion was generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in June, a record for a single month since March 2020 when Nigeria joined the list of countries hunkered down by the coronavirus pandemic.
The tax collector filed N4.95 trillion to the treasury last year, 98 per cent of targeted N5.076 trillion, and the jumbo delivery in June 2021 alone may suggest the trajectory of entire takings this year.
FIRS Communications and Liaison Director, Abdullahi Ahmad, said “this feat was achieved as a result of the efficiency and effectiveness of the TaxProMax Solution.
“Notwithstanding the challenges and resistance faced in the early stages of its adoption, and the downturn orchestrated by the slow economic recovery.”
Ahmad was quoting FIRS Executive Chairman Muhamma Nami, whom he said reminded taxpayers of the one-off one-month extension granted this month for filing company income tax.
The remittance is to be made by taxpayers with December 31, 2020 accounting year-end whose statutory tax returns were due not later than June 30, 2021.
Nami urged taxpayers to take advantage of the extension, which enables all whose company income tax returns were due in June to file up to July 31.
Tax administration upgrade
Nairametrics recalls that the FIRS announced last month a new online Tax Administration Solution (TaxProMax) as part of effort to ease tax compliance and modernise tax administration.
The platform, which is for naira denominated transactions, facilitates registration, filing, payment of taxes, automatic credit of withholding tax and other credits to the taxpayer’s account, among other features.
And it provides a single-view to taxpayers for all transactions with the FIRS, which also launched last month a portal that tackles fake Tax Clearance Certificates (TCC).
The FIRS pitched it as a state-of-the-art and user-friendly portal that detects TCCs not issued by the FIRS.