Tunde Fowler, Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), said Nigeria loses about $15 billion dollars to tax evasion annually.
Fowler disclosed this while speaking at a tax seminar with the theme “Exchange of Information as a Tool to Combat Offshore Tax Evasion’’ stating that Nigeria would begin the implementation of automatic exchange of information standard by 2020 as a way of curbing further losses.
“Nigeria would implement the first Automatic Exchange of Information standard by 2020. The regime is part of the country’s commitment to improving transparency in tax administration, increased tax revenue collection, enhanced effectiveness, and efficient service delivery,” he said.
He further stressed that there was an important linkage between tax compliance, domestic tax investigation, tax audit, information gathering framework and the international infrastructure for the exchange of information amongst authorities and nations.
“Nigeria had demonstrated her commitment to improving 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”.
According to hi, the country “Finalized 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 to conduct the first exchange of information under the automatic exchange of information regime by September 2020,” he noted.
Fowler urged countries in the ECOWAS sub-region who have not committed to implementing the AEOI standards to take necessary steps to do so, especially as the automatic exchange of information portend huge benefits for domestic resource mobilization.
He noted that the increase in mobility of income and assets had created a challenge for tax administration and that government across the world were joining efforts to address such challenges.
He added that “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.
“It is expected that the training will further enhance the effectiveness of participants who are at advanced 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.’’
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 the exchange of information.
Oladapo said efforts were on the closed gap among nations to ensure effective implementation of the exchange of information and that tax administration could only be done successful based on the availability of information.
Speaking further, Oladapo commended the OECD Global Forum for leading the drive for the automatic exchange of information that would ensure a high network of individuals and multinationals were made to pay their taxes.
Also, the representative of the OECD Global Forum, Ervice Tchonaya in his remark said that the core mandate of the forum was to ensure effective implementation of the international standard for the implementation of the automatic exchange of information among countries.
He said that the forum instrument of the intervention included the Peer-Review Process, In-Depth Monitory System and Technical Assistance in the area of capacity building in the form of training and seminars among others.
