The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to improve revenue generation through tax.
The signing which took place in Lagos was witnessed by the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Chairman, FIRS, Muhammed Nami; and Chairman, LIRS, Ayodele Subair, among others.
Speaking at the event, the LIRS chairman said the collaboration gave his agency the power to look into the affairs of corporate entities and block revenue losses.
Subair said, “We all know the world over that tax is the most sustainable source of revenue for funding all the lofty objectives of the state government and the federal government also. So, we look forward to a very successful collaboration with FIRS
“It’s mainly around sharing of information, around the ability to fish out all the recalcitrant, especially high-net-worth individuals who take advantage of the fact that there is Federal Inland Revenue Service that regulates basically the limited liability companies, the corporate entities, while the subnationals, the state internal revenue services generally regulate the tax laws around individuals.”
He added, “So, we know the practice in Nigeria. A lot of high-net-worth individuals make a lot of their personal expenditures through their corporate accounts.
“Now, the state is not empowered to look into the affairs of corporate entities, we can only look into the affairs of individuals, and thereby, the state loses a lot of revenue which is very important for the provision of critical infrastructure. There’s a huge infrastructure gap in a state like Lagos where we have about 25 million people and funding is quite limited; the state is really, really stretched.”
