The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) on Tuesday said that the tax reform act empowers it to collect tax from all taxable income without questioning the legitimacy of the source.
It explained that its mandate by law is to collect taxes and not to probe the source, noting that it is the duty of anti-graft agencies to check the genuineness of sources of income.
This disclosure was made in Abuja by the Tax Controller, MDA Tax Office, FCT-IRS, Fatima Abubakar, at the official launch of the “Taxporta”, during the Ministries, Departments and Agencies ( MDAs) and other Stakeholders engagement.
The “ Taxporta” is said to be a new digital tax management platform, designed to simplify tax administration and enhance compliance.
She noted that irrespective of what you do, so long as you earn an income, the law mandates you to pay taxes from such earnings.
According to her, with the new tax reform, apart from taxes from salary, all tax payers and individuals are expected to pay taxes on every benefit, allowances being enjoyed from the office.
” All benefits in kind and cash are taxable because they are perks of the office, e.g 5% of the value of official car, and one hundred thousand naira fine for incomplete tax filing in the first month, and fifty thousand naira for subsequent months ”
Abubakar stressed that every taxable individual, business and government institution must obtain a taxpayer identification number (TIN) and comply with tax obligations under the new legal framework, noting that proper understanding of the jurisdiction of tax authorities would also help prevent revenue losses arising from incorrect remittances.
Abubakar also used the medium to appeal to all MDAs to remit their employees deduction promptly, and warned that the tax authority has the right to automatically register and generate TIN for taxable persons with their NIN.
In his remarks, The Acting Executive Chairman FCT- IRS , Michael Ango, said the stakeholders engagement was targeted at sensitizing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the implementation of Nigeria’s 2025 tax reforms to ensure voluntary compliance.
He said the new portal represents an upgrade of the agency’s existing digital infrastructure to provide taxpayers with faster, safer and more efficient services.
He noted that Taxporta is an end-to-end self-service platform through which taxpayers can register, file returns, calculate taxes, make payments, generate receipts and obtain tax clearance certificates without third-party assistance.
“Of course, we have a digital agenda. Any serious institution, whether in the public or private sector, has to move with the times…In essence, this is a continuation of our own digital innovation process to ensure that we are able to service our taxpayers so they can do all the things they need to do in the comfort of their homes or offices, without having to leave and come to interact with us physically.”
