Tax & Business Matters - Nigeria

FIRS to stop collecting taxes in the Federal Capital Territory

Effective immediately, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will cease to collect taxes and levies in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which it previously collected on behalf of the FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS). The FCT-IRS will henceforth collect the relevant taxes and issue clearance certificates. The relevant taxes include employees PAYE, personal income taxes of individuals resident in the FCT and property taxes. 

A new law to establish the FCT-IRS was enacted in 2015 by the National Assembly but the FCT-IRS did not commence full tax administration functions immediately. In March 2016, the FCT-IRS agreed with the FIRS for the latter to continue collecting taxes payable by residents of the FCT on its behalf.

It is expected that further details regarding the transition will be made available in due course.

The OECD has released its latest edition of Model Tax Convention

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on 18 December 2017 released the latest edition of its Model Tax Convention incorporating various changes developed under the OECD/G20 project to address base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

These measures include Action 2 (Neutralising the Effects of Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements), Action 6 (Preventing the Granting of Treaty Benefits in Inappropriate Circumstances), Action 7 (Preventing the Artificial Avoidance of Permanent Establishment Status) and Action 14 (Making Dispute Resolution More Effective).

See link below for further details:

2017 OECD Model Tax Convention