BY ADEYEMI ROBINSON-ADEFIOYE
Chairman, FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE SERVICE (FIRS), MR. TUNDE FOWLER, has disclosed that Nigeria loses about $15billion to tax evasion annually. Fowler made the disclosure in Abuja yesterday at a meeting of over 50 participants’ tax experts from across the globe.
The meeting is aimed at finding ways of combating offshore tax evasion through EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION (EOI) regime.
FOWLER said that Nigeria will implement the first Automatic Exchange of Information standard by 2020, as it is part of the country’s commitment to improve transparency in tax administration, increased tax revenue collection, enhanced effectiveness and efficiency service delivery.
He explained that there is an important linkage between tax compliance, domestic tax investigation, tax audit, information gathering framework and the international infrastructure for exchange of information amongst authorities and nations.
“Nigeria has demonstrated her commitment to improve transparency around tax matters, when she signed a declaration and joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) on 17th August 2017.
“Furthermore, to facilitate the process of implementing the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), Nigeria published the AEOI regulations in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
“Finalised and issued CRS guidelines, constructed and finished a dedicated building for the operation of the AEOI and put in place the necessary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to operationalize the AEOI processes.
“Nigeria has done all these to enable us conduct the first exchange of information under the automatic exchange of information regime by September 2020.
“I encourage those countries in the ECOWAS sub-region who have not committed to implement the AEOI standards to take necessary steps to do so, especially as the automatic exchange of information portend huge benefits for domestic resource mobilization,’’ Fowler said.
He noted that increase in mobility of income and assets has created a challenge for tax administrations and that government across the world are teaming up to address such challenges.
FOWLER said the challenges offered a global response to the issues of international tax avoidance, tax evasion, illicit financial flows, money laundering and other harmful tax practices based cooperation and use of advanced technologies to tackle the issues.
“It is my hope that this seminar will broaden your knowledge and develop your skills on how to use AEOI tools to combat tax evasion and improve domestic revenue mobilization in your countries.
Also, it is expected that the training will further enhance the effectiveness of participants who are at advance stage of AEOI implementation in their countries to increase the number and quality of outgoing requests to their treaty partners while those of you whose countries have not committed to the implementation of the international standard on AEOI will take steps to do so in view of the enormous benefit to be derived from it.’’
Earlier, MR. BABATUNDE OLADAPO, the Executive Secretary, WEST AFRICA TAX ADMINISTRATION FORUM (WATAF), said that the body was committed to contributing to the expansion of the global tax base through exchange of information.
OLADAPO said efforts were on the closed gap among nations to ensure effective implementation of exchange of information and that tax administration could only be done successful based on the availability of information.
He commended the OECD GLOBAL FORUM for leading the drive for the automatic exchange of information that would ensure high network of individuals and multinationals were made to pay their taxes.
Also, the representative of the OECD GLOBAL FORUM, ERVICE TCHONAYA, said that forum core mandate was to ensure effective implementation of the international standard for the implementation of the automatic exchange of information among countries.
He said that forum instrument of intervention included Per-Review Process, In-Depth Monitory System and Technical Assistance in the area of capacity building in form of trainings and seminars among others.
The seminar organised by WATAF in partnership with the OECD GLOBAL FORUM had the theme: “EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION AS A TOOL TO COMBAT OFFSHORE TAX EVASION’’ aimed at sharing experiences and build capacity across borders.
