The FG also disclosed that tax evaders will soon find staying in the country difficult.
Nigeria’s minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun made this known in Lagos at a lecture at PWC’s Business School, with the theme: ‘Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) Interactive Session for Executives and Business Owners.’
The government has also engaged the services of asset tracing-companies to investigate the tax payment status of 150 firms/individuals. The minister also disclosed that tax defaulters will be investigated.
“We are working alongside projects we have locally, like the Bank Verification Number (BVN), records of property ownership, records of property allocation, records of company ownership from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), among others.
It is from these projects that we look at how much tax such companies or individuals should be paying”.
”The investigators’ findings will enable us compare the income and how much tax the company/person is really paying, and that gives us lots of information. But we encourage people to come up and pay their taxes willingly.”
“You can register a high-end car. It tells me something about your income. So we look at your tax returns. If you registered Mercedes E-Class and you are paying N100,000 tax, then something is wrong.
Those are red flags. We now have the capacity to assess people accurately.”
Going further, she said no Nigerian would be left out in the campaign to enlarge the tax net, noting that some beggars were earning millions.
She said the government will look at their lifestyles and tax them, adding that “even proceeds from begging are taxable. You are supposed to pay taxes even if your means of income is begging”.
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