federal inland revenue service
The Federal Inland Revenue Service collects federal taxes in Nigeria, including company tax and VAT, and it has become considerably harder to ignore.
In plain English
For a long time, a great many Nigerian businesses operated on the assumption that tax was optional if you were small enough or quiet enough. That assumption is expiring.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service collects taxes due to the federal government. Company income tax. Value added tax. Withholding tax. Petroleum profits tax. Stamp duties. It also issues the Tax Identification Number that your business needs to open accounts, bid for contracts and, increasingly, to exist commercially at all.
Note carefully what it does not do. Your personal income tax, if you are employed or self employed, generally goes to your state revenue service rather than to FIRS. People confuse this constantly and file in the wrong place.
The direction of travel is unmistakable. Digital filing, data matching across banks and agencies, and far more aggressive enforcement. The business that has never filed is not invisible. It is simply not yet inconvenient.
Register. File, even when the figures are small. Keep records from the first day, because reconstructing three years of accounts under pressure is a special kind of misery, and it is entirely avoidable.
A small business trades for four years without registering. It then wins a contract requiring a tax clearance certificate. Obtaining one now means settling four years of unfiled returns, with penalties, in a hurry.
Questions people ask
What is a TIN?
A Tax Identification Number, required to open business accounts, bid for contracts and file returns. Your business needs one from the start.
Does FIRS collect my personal income tax?
Generally no. Personal income tax for most individuals goes to your state internal revenue service. FIRS handles company tax, VAT and other federal taxes.
What is a tax clearance certificate?
Proof that your tax affairs are in order. It is increasingly required for contracts, licences and financing, and you cannot get one retrospectively without settling what is owed.
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