On Friday, 4 June 2021, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) issued a Public Notice providing guidelines on the administration of its TaxPro-Max e-filing platform ("the Platform"). The Platform was introduced to facilitate ease of tax registration, filing, payment, and automated credits of withholding tax and other credits to taxpayers' accounts.
Effective from 7 June 2021, taxpayers are required to submit all naira-denominated tax returns on the Platform. In this regard, taxpayers must generate a Document Identity Number (DIN) from the Platform to pay their tax liabilities. Taxpayers, who wish to make manual tax filings, must contact their local tax office in person or via email (taxpromax@firs.gov.ng) to upload the tax returns and generate a DIN at least two weeks before the filing deadline.
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It is just some few days to the statutory deadline for filing of Companies Income Tax (CIT) returns for companies with 31 December accounting year-end. In line with the provisions of the CIT Act, failure to file CIT returns by the due date attracts a late filing penalty of ₦25,000 in the first month and ₦5,000 for every month that the default continues. Also, failure to settle the CIT liabilities by the due date will attract a penalty of 10% of the tax due and interest at the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary Policy Rate plus a spread of 5%.
Companies with 31 December accounting year-end that wish to file manually must ensure that their CIT computations be finalized and ready for upload on the Platform by Thursday, 17 June 2021, being two weeks before the due date, to avoid the unnecessary sanctions for default. Meanwhile, the FIRS may consider extending the filing deadline to accommodate potential issues with obtaining the DIN and ensure that real-time support be provided to taxpayers, who may still have difficulties filing on the Platform by 30 June 2021.
Please click here to read the FIRS' Public Notice.
The opinion expressed in this article is solely personal and does not represent the views of any organization or association to which the authors belong.