FG decries unfair global tax rules, to begin informal sector taxes

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has called for the abolishment of unfair international tax rules skewed against developing countries.

This is just as the federal government plans to begin informal sector taxes next year.

Speaking in Abuja at the 42nd Technical Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA), yesterday, Zainab said: “The current international tax rules are skewed against source countries; particularly, developing countries.

“We have observed, for instance, that “Amount A” profit meant for market jurisdictions is progressively being chipped away in favour of jurisdictions where the multinationals are resident. 

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The minister said taxation is a matter of domestic law and that disputes arising from the interpretation of domestic legislation should only be resolved within those domestic legislations.

On advocacy for this practice, Zainab said: “Nigeria is of the view that CATA is that organisation that is best placed to start this dialogue.”

President of CATA and Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Muhammad Nami, said from 2023, there will be a definite effort to get more informal sector players into the tax net.

Speaking at the side-line of the conference, he said: “FIRS is trying to submit a regulation to the minister of finance on presumptive tax. We already have a tax law that allows us to bring the informal sector into the tax net. But it is on condition that regulation has to be issued by the minister of finance, budget and national planning.

“We are doing that, and we will submit a draft regulation to the minister. Thus by 2023, we should come up with a framework of which we will use technology, our administrative apparatus, and other means to bring them into the tax net,” he said.