TheCable

Tunde Fowler says the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) recorded four million new taxpayers, resulting in N700 billion increase in revenue in 2017

The FIRS chairman said this at the 13th general assembly of the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF).

The chairman said in the past two years, the service has scaled up its use of ICT to facilitate taxpayers’ compliance.

He said the service introduced initiatives to improve inter-agency collaboration with a view to enhancing tax administration and reducing tax revenue leakages.

“Our efforts in this regard have made an impact and contributed to an increase in the number of taxpayers by an additional four million, including companies and individuals,” Fowler said.

“We recorded an increase of over N700 billion in tax revenues in 2017, above the taxes collected in 2016.”

He said the launch of WATAF marked its formal entry into the ranks of similar organisations focused on international collaboration in tax matters, having attained the statutory requirements spelled out in the WATAF Agreement.

“Now, West Africa has a platform for countries to collaborate in tax matters supported by their governments and a forum to articulate and project West African perspective in tax administration in the global tax arena,” he said.

“We all are aware that the business community is setting up processes and structures which our legal and tax regimes did not contemplate and are struggling to keep up with.

“This further brings about stagnated growth, under development and other attendant ills in our countries.”

Elfrieda Tamba, chairman of WATAF, said the aim of the initiative was to bring tax administrators within the region together to share knowledge, interact and share experiences.