Executive Order 8 not yet operational
IMPLEMENTATION OF EXECUTIVE Order 008 is yet to commence more than three months after it was signed by President Mohammadu Buhari, Business am can authoritatively report.
IMPLEMENTA TION OF EXECUTIVE Order 008 is yet to commence more than three months after it was signed by President Mohammadu Buhari, Business am can authoritatively report.
The order tagged “Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS)” approved on October 10, 2018, gives foreign asset owners a 12-month window grace to declare and pay tax on their assets, after which the federal government would swoop down with sanctions for tax evasion.
More than three months after signing, the scheme is yet to take off as the authorities say that the modalities for its operations are still be- ing worked out.
However, those in the know about the matter believe that the policy which will mostly affect high end individuals and the fact that offshore assets are more often than not bought with proceeds of corruption, those working on it are deliberately dragging their feet to ensure that implementation of the policy does not see the light day.
In response a query from Business am, Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, said at the end of last year, “The VOARS has just taken off. There was an executive order that was approved by the President. There are some consultants that have been approved by the Attorney General of the Federation. As far as we know they are still working. I have not yet seen any report therefore I am not in a position to report on it now.”
Apparently seeking to cash on the revenue gains derived through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) the government had in October extended the tax amnesty programme to offshore asset holders with the approval of VOARS.
By this Nigerian taxpayers who hold offshore assets and income are expected to, within a period of 12 months, declare voluntarily those assets and pay taxes on them and when they do this, they should expect to derive certain specified benefits.
Recall that the federal government concluded the VAIDS on June 30, 2018, which it said yielded about N30 billion from tax defaulters within the country.
According to the order, “any taxpayer who truthfully and voluntarily complies with the conditions of the scheme, pays a one-time levy of 35 percent on the total offshore assets or pays all outstanding taxes, penalties and interest after forensic audit of their offshore assets and income shall obtain immunity from prosecution for tax offenses and offences related to offshore assets, among others.
“Equally, failure of any defaulting taxpayer to take advantage of this scheme shall, at the expiration of the scheme result in investigation and enforcement procedures concerning offshore assets anywhere in the world pursuant to information now readily available through automatic exchange of information between Nigeria and foreign countries.”