The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has released new Value Added Tax (VAT) filing forms 002 – (for headquarters and branches); and 006 – (for self charge or withholding of VAT), respectively. The forms can be viewed or downloaded here.
In the FIRS’ bid to ease the difficulty of filing VAT (particularly for large, multi-location businesses), these forms have been designed separately to include forms for Head office, Branch offices and Self charge (in the case where the business is not issued a VAT invoice by its supplier).
These new VAT filing forms are to replace the old form and has been reviewed to incorporate the changes made in the Finance Act, 2019. On filing/submission (through online or offline platforms) to FIRS, the new self-charge VAT form 006 should be accompanied by a schedule of all the suppliers of goods or services from which the business has withheld VAT or on whose transactions the business has self-charged itself VAT (that is, where the business was not issued a ‘VAT invoice’ by its supplier based on the provisions of the Finance Act 2019).
Comments
The introduction of the new VAT filing forms (form 002) for Head Office and Branch offices, albeit bringing a bit of controversy as to whether branch operations are now independently taxable in Nigeria, will ease the difficulty and late filing of VAT by allowing divested tax functions and taking advantage of proximity between the VAT offices and business premises.
FIRS would also be able to track the inflow of VAT from Head office, Branch offices, and Self charge/ withheld VAT, giving them a better picture of how VAT was remitted to avoid tax evasion, particularly for the Self charge cases.