While addressing the House of Representatives Committees regarding the recent tax bills introduced by President Bola Tinubu, Zaccheus Adedeji, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), explained that they are designed for tax emerging economic sectors like cryptocurrencies.
Included in the new bill are the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill.
Pointing out that the current laws do not have provisions for taxing gains from cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, Mr. Adedeji stated, “As we stand today, there is no law anywhere to actually regulate or monitor cryptocurrency.”
Mr. Adedeji opined that the proposed law aims to harmonize tax laws and make them easier to follow as multiple tax laws discourage investment because they make compliance expensive. He stated, “This is not about merging government agencies, and it certainly will not result in job losses.”
With the rise of the internet and digital transactions, the FIRS Chairman noted that it is important to update tax laws to reflect modern realities. “At present, we are using a tax integrity framework from 1939, a time when there was no Internet or online shopping,” he said.
Read Also: New tax bills mandate finance workers to have tax id to operate bank accounts.
As it is, the proposed bills will not add new taxes but will widen the tax base to include digital and modern economic activities. “We will never increase either the rate or the number of taxes,” Mr. Adedeji said, elaborating that the president’s goal is to simplify and aggregate the existing taxes.
Furthermore, Mr. Adedeji explained that the current name (Federal Inland Revenue Service) no longer reflects the agency’s full responsibilities, as they also collect taxes for states and local governments through VAT (Value Added Tax), hence another crucial part of the proposal is the plan to rename the Federal Inland Revenue Service to the Nigeria Revenue Service.
“Today, we collect online charges for Jumia, Google, and others,” he said, highlighting that the new name would better correspond to the agency’s role in collecting revenue from within and outside Nigeria.
The lawmakers and the FIRS team entered a closed-door retreat, after the briefing, with no details shared with the media.
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