In its Public Notice of 1 June 2022 (view here), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has announced that it would be embarking on a nationwide Value Added Tax (VAT) and Withholding Tax (WHT) compliance monitoring exercise with effect from 1 July 2022.
To this end, the FIRS’ teams of officers will be visiting selected taxpayers or taxable persons (including companies, NGOs, or MDAs) to review their VAT and WHT records. This exercise will cover 2016 to 2020 accounting years (including any earlier years for which the records of any of such taxpayers have not been tax-audited). A letter of notification (including the documents required for the exercise) will be sent to all taxpayers or tax agents who have been selected for the VAT and WHT compliance monitoring exercise.
From the FIRS’ Notice, although no direct statement was made to this effect, it can be inferred that taxpayers who have undergone tax audits covering the years mentioned, may not be subjected to the VAT and WHT monitoring exercise.
In the light of the proposed exercise, the FIRS has also extended invitation to all taxable persons and tax agents who have collected VAT or deducted WHT over time (or before now) but have not remitted them, to do so within 2 weeks from the date of Publication of the Notice.
We advise affected taxpayers to conduct a pre-check or pre-audit exercise in-house to enable them plan /mitigate any exposures that may arise from the FIRS’ compliance monitoring exercise.
For more enquiries, please send an email to clients@vi-m.com.