LIRS, FIRS sign pact on tax audit

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has bemoaned Nigeria’s tax to GDP ratio of between 6 to 8 per cent, despite the yearly record-breaking turnovers by both Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS). This, he said, had mounted pressure on the nation’s resources and created an imbalance in government expenditure. […]

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has bemoaned Nigeria’s tax to GDP ratio of between 6 to 8 per cent, despite the yearly record-breaking turnovers by both Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS).

This, he said, had mounted pressure on the nation’s resources and created an imbalance in government expenditure.

Sanwo-Olu spoke yesterday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between FIRS and LIRS at the Lagos State House, Marina.

He said Nigeria must operate at the same level as other nations within sub-Saharan Africa doing between 14 and 15 per cent in tax to GDP ratio in order to support the government’s development programme and improve accountability.

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While describing the collaboration as “epoch-making”, Sanwo-Olu noted that the conversation for the harmonization of the two agencies’ mandates started about a year ago.

The Executive Chairman of LIRS, Mr Ayodele Subair, in his remarks, said the importance of the agreement was to foster greater collaboration between the two agencies.

He said the collaboration was to promote the smooth operation of activities not only for the benefit of tax authorities but improved service delivery for taxpayers.

In his own remarks, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami, said among the benefits of the collaboration was the ability to implement presumptive tax, automatic exchange of information and joint investigation among others.