VAIDS deadline: Fear of prosecution grips tax debtors

The Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) office in the Federal Ministry of Finance has said that individual and corporate tax debtors have been besieging tax authorities to seek information on how to declare their previously unpaid taxes before the VAIDS window shuts on March 31, 2018.

The VAIDS office, in a statement it released yesterday, attributed the rush to its discovery of hidden assets by tax defaulters through the use of data it obtained from a variety of sources, including government revenue-collecting agencies, bank verification numbers (BVN), payment platforms, land registries and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Corporate Affairs Commission.

The statement said that an analysis of the data showed that the lifestyle of many taxpayers did not match the taxes they paid.

The office disclosed it had written letters to those in that category to take advantage of the tax amnesty scheme, which gives them the opportunity to spread payment over a maximum three years, with interests/penalties waived.

It assured those who declared their correct status before the deadline escape from prosecution, which the Federal Government had warned would follow at the closure of the window.

The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Tunde Fowler, had recently declared that the Service had the resources to prosecute those who failed to comply with VAIDS. He said the agency increased its legal fees in its 2018 budget in readiness for litigation arising from non-compliance with VAIDS.

The Chairman of Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr Ayodele Zubair, also said the agency had been approached by many individuals and corporate organisations seeking to declare their indebtedness.