FIRS: 23,141 tax defaulters owing N254 billion

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says a total of 23,141 defaulters owe N254 billion in tax liabilities.

Babatunde Fowler, executive chairman of FIRS, disclosed this at the 49th annual accountant conference organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in Abuja.

He said the agency is collaborating with commercial banks to ensure the recovery of defaulted taxes.

“FIRS in collaboration with the banks has started engaging in compliance measures with regard to the tax defaulters and their accounts,” he said.

“Failure to carry out this directive will result in the banks being sanctioned according to Section 31 subsection 1-3 and 32 respectively of the FIRS Act 2007.”

Fowler said out of 44,293 non-compliant companies, 3,976 already paid about N97.7 billion.

He said the agency recovered N88.59 billion after reaching an agreement with 3,797 out of 42,736 companies.

Under the tax substitution programme, the FIRS collects taxes from default payers by appointing banks and other financial institutions as collection agents.

Fowler said if the default continues, the agency will apply appropriate sanctions by delisting defaulting banks from the FIRS collection list.

In August, the agency listed 19,901 accounts that were yet to regularise their tax status.

Among the accounts published were Obasanjo Farms, Iyiola Omisore, Coldstone and Davido Music Worldwide (DMW).