Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad Nami, has assured tenants across the country that the Service is working on a stamp duty palliative package for them in view of the current economic realities occasioned by COVID-19.
Mr. Nami dropped this hint on Monday during a live appearance on the popular morning show, “Your View”, on TV Continental (TVC) via video link, according to a statement by Director, Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad.
As part of the palliatives, the Executive Chairman hinted that stamp duty will not be collected in arrears from tenants, even as he told his interviewers that “there is never a time when taxation is convenient for everybody to pay” and enjoined Nigerians to embrace tax payment “as a patriotic duty to our dear country, Nigeria.”
The Executive Chairman stated that the FIRS was aware that many taxable Nigerians and businesses in the country were going through difficulties imposed on all of us by COVID-19, hence the FIRS has consistently rolled out tax-related palliatives to relieve them of their tax liabilities since the pandemic shut down the Nigerian and global economy.
Mr. Nami stressed that contrary to some false claims in certain quarters, stamp duty was not a creation of the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari or the current leadership of the FIRS.
He said: “Stamp Duty dates back to colonial times in Nigeria. It has been a form of tax in Nigeria as far back as 1939 when you and I were not yet born. It was codified in our laws in 1953, that is before independence. It was consolidated in 2002, published in 2006 and further reworked into the Stamp Duty Act 2004.”
