Govt uncovers 130,000 high net worth persons, firms underpaying tax

The Federal Government’s data mining efforts have identified a new batch of over 130,000 high networth individuals and companies with potential tax underpayments.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, broke the news yesterday while appearing on “Good Morning Nigeria”, a Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) programme.
The minister said the data was being compiled by Project Lighthouse in preparation for the closure of the ongoing Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) on March 31.
Project Lighthouse is a unique project of the Federal Ministry of Finance that combines data from federal and state agencies and overseas countries.
According to Mrs. Adeosun, “data have been received from a number of sources, including land registries of the governments of Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and Ogun states as well as the Federal Capital Territory”.
“In addition, Nigeria has been able to request data from a number of nations, including traditional tax havens. The data have been received from a number of foreign jurisdictions under the exchange of information protocols.
“Under the exchange of information protocols, this information relates to bank records and financial filings for tax purposes and is obtained from tax havens who are signatories to the information sharing agreements such as British Virgin Islands and Mauritius.”
The data received from overseas countries will be used for taxation purposes only in line with the protocols governing the exchange of information
“The sole interest of the Federal and State Governments in the use of the data is in raising tax revenues. There is absolutely no hidden agenda on the use of the data,” she added.
Adeosun was however happy at what she called “the unprecedented level of cooperation between the Federal and State Governments”, which she said was a marked change from the past when the various arms of Government did not align their efforts.
She  identified the common violations by non-compliant tax payers to include under-declaration of and non-declaration of income earned including income from Government contracts and overseas trading;  collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) which is not duly  remitted to Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS); charging of non-allowable personal expenses to company accounts particularly with reference to overseas school fees; inconsistency between income declared for tax purposes and the value of assets owned.
She advised non-compliant tax payers to seek professional advice and to also consult relevant literature available from the tax authorities on tax rules.
She underscored the Federal Government’s commitment to raising tax revenues which are considered essential to grow the economy and create jobs for Nigerians.
She cited the fact that just N1 million could feed over 14,200 primary school children under the Homegrown School Feeding programme as well as creating many jobs in the agricultural sector.
Once again, the finance minister ruled out any possibility of extending the VAIDS programme arguing that sufficient grace period had been given to tax payers to voluntarily and truthfully declare their assets and income which had not been declared previously.
On the economy, she assured that the country was on the path of growth, noting that Nigeria exited recession in the second quarter of 2017, recording a growth of 0.72 per cent, further consolidating its recovery in the third and fourth quarters of last year, with growths of 1.40 per cent and 1.92 per cent, respectively.
She said: “The Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has laid the foundation for the repositioning of the economy by a series of reforms which are being sequenced to ensure maximum impact and benefits to Nigeria and the citizens.
“These include huge investments in infrastructure and social welfare across the country, improved revenue mobilisation, rebuilding of foreign reserves and stabilisation of exchange rate.”
She further noted that revenue mobilisation was potentially the master key to unlocking Nigeria’s huge growth potentials and funding the infrastructure programmes.
In addition, the minister said the Federal Government would continue to create more fiscal space for reforms to enhance productivity and opportunity in the non-oil sector.
-The Nation