FIRS creates tax audit units in bid to tackle illicit financial flow

The management of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has created
35 additional Tax Audit Units across the country to tackle illicit financial flow.

It said the development would curb illicit financial flow and enhance revenue generation, as it will also grow the rate tax compliance in the country.

In a statement by the FIRS’s Director of Communications and Liaison Department, Abdullahi Ahmad on Monday in Abuja, FIRS said it will help tax payers to do remittances accordingly.

The statement was at the backdrop of a workshop in Abuja on Monday titled: “Effective Audit of Multinational Corporations for Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in Nigeria.”

Chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami, the statement quoted, said,
some multinational corporations were leading in tax compliance in various sectors.

Nami however, lamented that many rich Multinational Corporations did not pay the right taxes due to them, let alone pay their taxes voluntarily.

According to him, Nigeria lost over $178 billion which is about 5.4 trillion between 2007 and 2017 due to tax evasion by Multinationals doing business in the Nigeria.

He also cited a 2014 report by the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, which stated that “Nigeria accounted for 30.5 per cent of money lost by the continent through illicit financial flows.

“At the FIRS we are paying greater attention to tax audit in general and Transfer Pricing audit in particular in order to improve the level of tax compliance in the country.

“As a result, in the last one year, we have created more than 35 additional Tax Audit Units and deployed experienced and capable staff to take charge of these offices” he explained.