FIRS Sets April 1 For eVAT Collection For Superstores, Others
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has stated that its Automated Value Added Tax (VAT) collection for branded shops, superstores, general supermarkets, standard restaurants and eateries nationwide will become effective from April 1, 2020.
Chairman of the Service, Muhammed Nami, who disclosed this in a public notice on Monday, stated that the online VAT deductions will enable efficient and seamless collection and also remittance of VAT on all variable transactions in the wholesale and retail sector.
He also said it will enable direct audit and reconciliation of all VAT transactions to ensure compliance with relevant tax laws.
Nami said the automated VAT platform (VATrac) becomes the approved channel from April 1 for all VAT returns filing and payment processing.
He called on all businesses in that category to liase with the nearest FIRS Tax Office in order to be connected to the FIRS eVAT platform for access and timely compliance.
“As with other FIRS services, please note that the new eVAT platform is for your ‘ease of business’ with FIRS and has no disruptive or negative impact on your routine and existing systems, as the platform is built to interoperate with any standard point of sale (POS) and fiscal machine” he said.
In a different statement by the Service, the Chairman alerted tax administrators in developing countries, especially Africa, to the disruptive tendencies embedded in the Fourth Industrial Revolution as currently being driven by powerful Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based inventions like Blockchain, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
According to the tax expert, while these technological innovations have the beneficial tendency to help revenue agencies in their assigned national task, they also have great ability to undermine tax collection because they have created new, fluid, hard-to-trace ways of doing business that makes it difficult for revenue agencies to tax their transactions.
“In the world presently, the disruptive technological innovations such as Blockchain technology, Machine Learning and the whole gamut of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have dire consequences for developing economies in terms of revenue loss and high staff turnover”, he said.
