CIT: FIRS bows to pressure, extends filing date to August 31

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has extended the filing of Company Income Tax (CIT) returns for 2022 to August 31, for companies that could not meet up the June 30 deadline earlier fixed by the tax authority.

The extension is contained in a statement issued by the FIRS, and signed by Muhammad Nami, the authority’s executive chairman.

According to the FIRS, the action became necessary following “numerous calls from companies for the extension of time to submit the companies income tax returns.

The statement stated that as a measure of goodwill by the FIRS and in line with relevant provisions of the companies income tax Act, it had directed that all companies whose company income tax returns for the 2022 year of assessment, that fall due between June 30 and August 31, 2022 (both days inclusive), were given up to August 31, 2022, to submit their returns to the FIRS.

It went further to state that the extension was a one-off gesture by the service for only the 2022 assessment on company income tax returns and that companies that filed within this period of extension would not be subject to a late filing penalty or interest for late payment.

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“The relevant company income tax returns shall, therefore, not attract late filing penalty or interest for late payment if submitted to the Service on or before August 31, 2022;

“Where relevant company income tax returns are not filed by the extended date, penalty and interest for late payment shall be computed from the original due date and not the extended date,” the service said in the statement.

Nami, however, explained that the extension only applied to the filing of company income tax returns and did not extend to other taxes.

“This extension of the filing date is only for CIT and does not include returns for withholding tax, value-added tax, personal income tax (PAYE), etcetera.”

The FIRS called on the relevant taxpayers to take the opportunity of this extension to submit their company income tax returns and pay their due taxes within the specified time of an extension.