Abia State Internal Revenue Service (ASIRS) has explained that the service was never invited by the Federal High Court, Abuja, or the plaintiff, Uchechukwu Ogah, to clarify the authenticity or otherwise of Ikpeazu’s tax clearance certificate before its ruling.
The tax body stated that the tax clearance certificate and the tax receipts referred to by the court were duly issued to Ikpeazu by the service and were therefore not fake.
Udochukwu G. Ogbonna, executive chairman, ASIRS, in a statement, which was made available to BusinessDay, said the taxes for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, were pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) taxes, deducted at source from his personal emoluments by his employers (Abia State Passengers’ Integrated Manifest Scheme (ASPIMS), and Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), respectively, and remitted to the service in the relevant tax years.
He affirmed that the dates on the tax receipts of the relevant years (2011, 2012 and 2013) did not suggest that they were paid on those dates, but only reflected the date he applied to be issued with the receipts, because that was when he needed them, stressing that the dates on the tax receipts did not suggest that they were written out on those days.
The date on the receipts, according to him, only indicated the last days of the last month of the year, when the PAYE taxpayer became entitled to the receipts, as the receipts could not have carried a date earlier or later than the December 31, of the relevant tax year.
“It is immaterial that it fell on a Saturday, Sunday or any other day of the week. For example if 31st December 2011 fell on a Saturday, in the month following (i.e January) when the receipts are to be written out, it cannot carry any date in January 2012 or any other month in 2012.
“That his taxes having been deducted by his afore said employers and remitted to the service within the relevant years will not be said to have been paid on the same day, as such were paid as at when due. In fact the issue of payment as at when due does not apply to PAYE taxes because the taxpayer has no part to play in the deduction and remittance of his PAYE as the same is done by his employer. Where there is failure to deduct and remit PAYE taxes, it is the employer and not the taxpayer that is liable. See LSIRS and Seven Up Bottling Company reported in year 2000.
“Having stated the facts as they are above, we make bold to say that the tax returns filed by Okezie Victor Ikpeazu to his party-Peoples Democratic Party, were neither false nor fake and cannot be said to amount to fraudulent payment of taxes,” according to the ASIRS.
He reaffirmed that both the tax clearance certificate and the tax receipts referred to in the afore said judgment were the documents of Abia State Internal Revenue Service, because same was authored by the Service as the authority empowered by law to do so.
