{"id":68935,"date":"2023-02-06T19:11:40","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T18:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=68935"},"modified":"2023-02-06T19:11:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T18:11:40","slug":"lirs-firs-sign-pact-on-exchange-of-information-joint-tax-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/lirs-firs-sign-pact-on-exchange-of-information-joint-tax-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"LIRS, FIRS Sign Pact On Exchange Of Information, Joint Tax Audit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Monday, February 6, 2023, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the exchange of information and implementation of joint tax audit and investigation exercise.<\/p>\n

\"\"The agreement signing ceremony held at the Lagos State House, Marina, was witnessed by Lagos State\u00a0<\/a>Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba, FIRS and LIRS coordinating directors, as well as some of the Lagos state exco members which included the state Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo Onaolapo and the state Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN.<\/p>\n

While the\u00a0<\/a>Executive Chairman, LIRS, Mr Ayodele Subair signed on behalf of Lagos State, his counterpart, Muhammad Mamman Nami, Executive Chairman, FIRS signed on behalf of the federal government.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the signing event, Mr Ayodele Subair, Executive Chairman, LIRS, in his remarks, said the importance of the agreement was to foster greater collaboration between the two agencies.<\/p>\n

He said though both tax agencies are not only independent of each other but different in the types of taxes they administer, the collaboration between the tax authorities was to promote the smooth operation of activities not only for the benefit of tax authorities but for improved service delivery for taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Subair noted; \u201cNotwithstanding its inclusion as a fundamental obligation of every Nigerian citizen pursuant to Section 24 (f) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, filing of annual income tax returns or payment of tax therefrom is not an issue that citizens are keen on.\u00a0 Nonetheless, citizens expect to have direct benefit of democracy and good governance without remembering that the most reliable and sustainable means of Domestic Resource mobilization for Government expenditure is taxation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason to debate the above as it has been established that tax compliance and good governance are expected to co-exist as the undividable social contract that binds citizens and governments anywhere in the world. Therefore, citizens and governments are expected to fulfill their end of the bargain in achieving a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s signing of this Memorandum of Understanding is in furtherance of the above bargain on the part of the tax authorities. While this initiative of a joint audit is not a new one, it is peculiar because it comes at a time when our dear nation struggles with the dwindling oil receipts and other economic woes which have affected the tax-to-GDP ratio which is currently adjudged as the lowest globally, standing at approximately 6%, compared to neighboring countries which average between 15 \u2013 25%., Subair submitted.<\/p>\n

According to the LIRS Chairman, some of the expected achievements from this collaboration between both tax authorities include a reduction of compliance costs for taxpayers; improved transparency in the tax administration process, which will impact tax disputes, incidences and reconciliation; reduced administration costs for both tax authorities; and elimination of hiding place for recalcitrant taxable persons and entities.<\/p>\n

In his own remarks, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami, said the essence of the collaboration between the FIRS and LIRS was to enable the two agencies to carry out joint projects together, secondly, in the course of its investigations, they both work as a team while the third and most important reason was to ensure automatic exchange of information which would enable the agency get a bigger data for seamless tax administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will work together as a team during the investigation and have an automatic exchange of information. With this, we will be able to carry out our mandate seamlessly. As part of the joint operation, we will be able to implement presumptive tax as far as issues of tax administration are concerned,\u201d Nami said.<\/p>

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In his own submission, describing the collaboration as \u201cepoch-making\u201d, Governor Sanwo-Olu noted that the conversation for the harmonization of the two agencies\u2019 mandates started about a year ago, based on the need to forge a common front in widening the tax net to raise the country\u2019s tax to GDP ratio.<\/p>\n

The Governor observed that Nigeria had maintained an unimpressive tax-to-GDP ratio of between 6 to 8 per cent, despite the yearly record-breaking turnovers by both FIRS and LIRS. This, he said, has mounted pressure on the nation\u2019s resources and created an imbalance in Government expenditure. Sanwo-Olu said Nigeria must operate at the same level as other nations within sub-Saharan Africa doing between 14 and 15 per cent in tax to GDP ratio in order to support the Government\u2019s development programmes and improve accountability.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe have just witnessed an epoch-making ceremony between the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Lagos Inland Revenue Service. This collaboration did not just happen by chance; it is a conversation we started about a year ago with the chairman of FIRS when both parties reviewed their successes and limitations. It was clear there was a need for a relationship to be consummated. Both FIRS and LIRS have been breaking records of their tax collection and administration yearly, but this is not enough. We have an unimpressive tax-to-GDP ratio, which ranges between six and eight per cent; this is totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies have shown that there would be better service delivery to the citizens and improvement in the efficiency of tax collection when the two agencies work together. The cost of tax collection would be reduced, we would see better customer satisfaction and more resources would be generated for the Government to deliver more dividends of democracy. For us as a State, we are humbled by this collaborative effort and we believe our citizens will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this initiative. The MoU is in the best interest of the public, as it affirms the reason why we need to come together and strengthen the cordial working relationship between the two agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PIX CAPTION:<\/b><\/p>\n

FIRS & LIRS<\/p>\n

L-R: Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo Onaolapo, Executive Chairman, LIRS, Mr Ayodele Subair, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami, Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba and \u00a0Lagos state Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN during the signing of\u00a0<\/a>MoU\u00a0between the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) held at the Lagos State House, Marina on Monday, February 6, 2023<\/p>\n

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FIRS & LIRS 2<\/p>\n

L-R: Executive Chairman, LIRS, Mr Ayodele Subair, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami signing the MoU documents on Collaboration of Exchange of Information and Implementation of Joint Tax Audit and Investigation Exercises with (standing) Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo Onaolapo, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba, Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Hon. Sam Egube and Lagos state Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN looking on at the Lagos State House, Marina on Monday, February 6, 2023<\/p>\n

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The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Monday, February 6, 2023, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the exchange of information and implementation of joint tax audit and investigation exercise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":68936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[608,5788],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-68935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-business","category-news","tag-firs","tag-lirs"],"yoast_head":"\nLIRS, FIRS Sign Pact On Exchange Of Information, Joint Tax Audit - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Monday, February 6,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/lirs-firs-sign-pact-on-exchange-of-information-joint-tax-audit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LIRS, FIRS Sign Pact On Exchange Of Information, Joint Tax Audit - 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