It is no longer news that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had written to banks to place lien on the accounts of tax defaulting entities with an annual turnover of N100 Million and above, particularly those entities that have been collecting Value Added Tax (VAT) as well as deducting Withholding Tax (WHT) without remitting same to the Federal Government.
Following last week’s release of the list of 19,001 such currently affected tax defaulters, spammers have taken to sending emails to random recipients to ask for tax documentation using the email excerpt below:
Subject of email: Tax Lien on Your Company’s Accounts
Body of email:
“A lien will be placed on your company’s bank account(s) if you do not complete your TAX documentation within the next 24 hours.
Kindly find the attached to enable you complete the process online.
-Tax Office”
We would like to use this medium to sensitize all our clients and prospects to be wary of such emails and NOT to open/ click any attachments to it.
We will send our detailed newsletter shortly on FIRS’ 19 August Public Notice to all tax defaulters under lien; how to avoid a tax lien and how to resolve it (if one is unfortunately already in the situation).
Do not hesitate to send an email to clients@vi-m.com if you need further clarifications or help on this.