The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, has said that the Service, in collaboration with other stakeholders like the Nigeria Police Force, will continue to go after wealthy tax defaulters in 2019.
Fowler, who said this on Thursday, in Abuja when the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, paid a courtesy visit to the Revenue House also disclosed that the Service had realised the sum of N23 billion for its closer look at the books of over 45, 000 tax defaulters, each of which had over N 100 million as turnover in their accounts.
The Service, he said will be going after another set of 40, 000 millionaire tax defaulters in 2019.
He called on the Nigeria Police to help the Service bring the tax defaulters to pay their taxes.
Earlier at a management retreat at Eko hotels in Lagos, last month, Fowler spoke of FIRS’s plan to identify and tax bank account holders with over 100 million as turnover but with no evidence of tax payment: “We looked at businesses, partnerships of any activity that has banking turnover between N100 million and N999 million. We have done the review of this group of businesses. We have about seven more banks that we are still waiting for return from and to review their information. So far, we have 45,361 that have TIN and are making payments.
“We have 40,611 that have TIN, that made tax payment and, and we have 44,504 that have no TIN and no payments. So, when you look at it from a glance, we have close to 75,000 in this group that are still not taxpayers and we have said the payment of tax is not only for the civil servants, but it’s for all Nigerians. So, the millionaires and the billionaires will pay tax on what is due to the national coffers”, Fowler said.