Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo says the Buhari-led Federal Government has concluded plans to widen its tax bracket by collecting taxes from foreign tech companies with operations in Nigeria, which include the likes of Facebook, Google, TikTok and others
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo made this known in a discussion with delegates of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) led by its President, Adesina Adedayo, who paid him a visit at the Presidential Villa.
He affirms that the government will not be raising tax rates at this time but will utilize the provisions of the Finance Act 2019 to widen the tax net.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this on Sunday in a statement titled ‘How FG will tax profits made by global tech, digital giants in Nigeria, by Osinbajo.
As seen by NewsCentralTV, here’s the statement by the Vice President
“While the Federal Government will not be raising tax rates at this time, based on the Finance Act 2019, it is already empowered to widen the tax net.
This includes collecting taxes on the Nigerian income of global tech giants with significant economic presence here, even if they have not established an office or permanent establishment, and are currently not paying taxes in Nigeria.
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In this regard, Section 4 of the Finance Act 2019, provides that the Finance Minister, may by order of the President, determine what constitutes the significant economic presence of a company, other than a Nigerian company.
We have had severe economic downturns, which of course implies that we may not be able to collect taxes with the aggressiveness that would ordinarily be expected.
I think the most important thing is that we must widen our tax net so that more people who are eligible to pay tax are paying,”