Earlier in the year, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) issued a Public Notice to announce the coming into effect of the VATrac- An Automated VAT Filing and Collection platform which would be compulsorily used in the wholesale/ retail sector and for direct audit/ reconciliation of of VAT transactions.
Affected businesses include branded shops, super stores, general supermarkets, standard restaurants; and eateries. These businesses are required to include in their transaction/ sales receipts the following:
- FIRS or JTB TIN;
- Print date;
- Goods/ product description;
- Receipt Number;
- Grand total;
- Standard 7.5% VAT rate
VATrac was expected to have taken effect from 1 April 2020 and affected businesses have been asked to contact the nearest FIRS tax office for onboarding on VATrac. Further directives on the practical implementation/ use of the VATrac are however still being awaited from the FIRS .
Businesses that would be affected by this new platform, namely, branded shops, super stores, general supermarkets, standard restaurants; and eateries are advised to prepare themselves for using an automated VAT system by staying abreast of retail related accounting software and automating their selling processes with a dependable Point of Sale (POS) software.
Further, the VATrac by FIRS may also be a cloud based platform, necessitating the use of stable internet enabled devices for retail sales.
For help with installing a retail/ restaurant/ eatery Point of Sale or accounting software, please contact us via clients@vi-m.com.
To find out all about VAT and how it works in Nigeria, please refer to our ebook on ‘Value Added Tax Explained‘.