By Remi Johnson
The Federal Capital Territory Internal
Revenue Service, FCT-IRS, has issued two weeks ultimatum to Individuals earning over 25 million par annum to comply with the Service in the payment of their taxes or face the wrath of the law.
To this end, the Service has created a Unit for taxation of High Networth Individuals, HNIs, in the FCT.
Unveiling the Unit, the Acting Executive Chairman FCT IRS, Mr Michael Ango described HNIs as individuals whether in paid employment, self-employed, in business or having passive annual income of N25,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Million Naira) and above in any financial year.
He therefore urged all taxpayers that fall within this category to comply with their tax obligations and pay up all outstanding liabilities within two weeks.
Ango said the Unit will focus on assessment and collection of income and other taxes as well as oversee compliance and enforcement of tax obligations by HNIs in the FCT.
The unit, will also be responsible for interface with agencies of government and other organisations within and outside the FCT regarding the taxation of HNIs in the FCT.
Ango noted that the FCT-IRS is now focused on the proper identification, profiling, and management of high-net-worth individuals within the FCT for tax compliance purposes.
“For our HNI taxpayers, we believe it is in our mutual interest that they comply voluntarily and we have identified over 10,000 of such individuals, with income in trillions of Naira, to whom we have started to send notices.
“We expect that they will respond and comply voluntarily. Otherwise, we will apply the relevant provisions of the law and exercise our powers to recover all the outstanding liabilities”.
The Acting Executive Chairman, FCT IRS, has consistently emphasized the need to enhance revenue generation in the FCT, in order to support the aggressive infrastructural transformation being undertaken by the Wike led administration.
The Acting Chairman stated that he would continue to take steps to ensure compliance by all taxpayers, irrespective of status and enjoined all residents of the FCT to continue to support the efforts of this administration to improve infrastructure and public services in the FCT and satellite towns by paying their taxes.
