The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has requested that organizations that oversee tax practice lead discussions about the nation’s tax laws and policies.
When hosting a meeting of the council members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) to discuss the implementation of an MoU on standardizing tax practice in Nigeria, Muhammad Nami, executive chairman of FIRS, made the call yesterday.
Nami advised the professional bodies to collaborate with the Service in order to strengthen the FIRS institutional structure through qualitative reporting and effective client representation, while also urging the councils to take a value-based leadership approach.
Nami stated that “we professional bodies need to voice on issues relating to tax policies and tax legislation, particularly on proposals to annual Finance Bills.”
“We also implore you to assist the Service in strengthening its institutional structure by ensuring that our colleagues’ professional reports are of the highest caliber and that clients are effectively represented.
To stop the influx of “copy and paste” financial reporting methods we currently see, we need to improve financial reporting.
The FIRS Executive Chairman, who is also a Fellow of two of the three professional groups, continued by saying that the tax authority had taken new techniques to address financial reporting issues on the side of the FIRS.
Nami pointed out that the FIRS had established brand-new divisions, including the Intelligence, Strategic Data Mining and Analysis Department, the Special Crimes Department, the Tax Incentives Management Department, and the Emerging and Special Taxes Department, which he claimed are at the forefront of resolving financial reporting problems through data mining.
He also mentioned that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the FIRS are working together to create a database to aid in tax inquiry.
Other tactics include increasing enforcement actions, reviewing data from the Automatic Exchange of Information, and accrediting tax auditors and consultants in the FIRS.
Professor Benjamin Osisioma of ANAN, Mr. Tijjani Musa Isa of ICAN, and Mr. Adesina Adedayo of the CITN, who are the presidents of the three organizations, praised the FIRS Executive Chairman for exercising leadership in pushing for and facilitating a resolution of the disputes between the three organizations.
Professor Osisioma thanked Mr. Nami for his leadership and said that if the three organizations didn’t work together, there would be anarchy in the regulation of tax practice in the nation.
He said, “We would destroy what we are attempting to achieve if we don’t cooperate and work together.
