FIRS: Soon, all tax transactions will be automated

Babatunde Fowler (pictured), chairman of the Joint Tax Board (JTB), says all tax transactions in the country will be soon be carried out online.

Fowler made this known on Thursday while speaking at the south-west flag-off ceremony of the new Tax Identification Number (TIN) Registration System and Consolidated National Taxpayers Database.

The website, which was first launched in Abuja on July 1, allows users to register and get their tax identification numbers (TIN) online.

According to the JTB Chairman, the new system will ensure that taxpayers’ information is available whenever and wherever they need them.

The system, said Fowler, will integrate data already captured by other relevant agencies, deploy analytics to discover underlying and correlating trends and patterns that could lead to increased internally generated revenue (IGR) for all tiers of government.

He listed the agencies to include the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

“This would significantly reduce the burden of manual taxpayer information management and by extension grossly crash the cost of collection,” he said.

“The system is designed in such a manner that each taxpayer is assigned a unique and universal Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and it is now possible for any taxpayer to view, retrieve or update his/her tax profile from anywhere 24/7.

In his opening remarks, Oseni Elamah, executive secretary of the JTB, said the new system is a web-based solution that offers access to authorized users to initiate TIN request from the comfort of their homes/offices real-time online, verify their tax status and print their TIN certificate.

“It is a transparent system that assures timely and accurate collection and recording of basic identification data,” he said.

“It also permits the tax administrator to understand its taxpayer base for effective revenue projections and other planning activities.

“By leveraging on existing data from relevant identity management agencies, the new system reduces the burden of multiple registrations of taxpayers as well as promoting the ease of doing business and paying taxes.”