The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Muhammad Nami has called on professional bodies in the regulation of tax practice to lead conversations on tax policy and tax laws in Nigeria.
Nami made the call Thursday while hosting a meeting of the council members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).
The meeting is aimed at discussing the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on standardisation of tax practice in Nigeria.
While calling for a value-based leadership approach from the councils, Nami urged the bodies to work hand-in-hand with the Service to deepen FIRS’ institutional framework through qualitative reporting and effective representation of their clients.
“Our professional bodies need to speak on matters of tax policies and tax laws especially on proposals to annual Finance Bills.
“We also urge you to help the Service to deepen institutional framework through quality reporting and effective representation of clients by our professional colleagues.
The FIRS helmsman, who is also a Fellow of two of the three professional bodies, explained that the tax authority had adopted renewed strategies to tackle financial reporting concerns.
Other strategies include the accreditation of tax consultants and auditors in the FIRS, the review of data from Automatic Exchange of Information as well as increased enforcement actions.
The presidents of the three bodies, Professor Benjamin Osisioma of ANAN, Mr. Tijjani Musa Isa of ICAN and Mr. Adesina Adedayo of the CITN commended the FIRS Executive Chairman for showing leadership in pushing for and enabling a resolution of the squabbles between the three bodies.
While thanking Mr. Nami for his leadership, the Professor Osisioma noted that failure to cooperate amongst the three bodies would lead to chaos in tax practice regulation in the country.
“If we fail to cooperate and collaborate, we would destroy what we are trying to build,” he stated.
