Behind The Furore, Tax Expert Explains Some Of The Major Reasons For The Self Certification Forms

Labule Thomas

A Tax expert has explained some of the major reasons for the new policy directing all account holders in banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions to obtain and submit Self-Certification Tax forms.

The Federal government disclosed that the aim is to enable institutions to do due diligence procedures in line with the income Tax Regulations 2019.

Monetary fine or inability to operate the accounts have been stipulated as consequence for non – performance.

The development has attracted increasing furor in the public space, especially from campaigners of tightening the tax net that is strangulating businesses.

Bringing another angle to the whole situation Taiwo Oyedele, the Head of Tax and Corporate Advisory Services at PWC Nigeria explained in a report on the development in Dailypost.ng monitored by societynow.ng that the move by the Federal Government is part of efforts to perfect automatic exchange of taxpayers information between Nigeria and other countries.

Oyedele asserted that the information supplied by account holders enable the reporting financial institutions to determine the tax residence of their customers and countries to share such with.

The tax expert also pointed out the obvious – the move by the government unmasks the identities behind corporate entities for reporting on beneficial ownership and control.

Reacting to public anger about the mess that usually decorates the execution of such policies, Oyedele reported stated

‘’ “In exchange, Nigerian government must provide information about persons in Nigeria who are tax residents in other jurisdictions to the relevant countries. The FG could have done a better job of simplifying the process and communicating more effectively.

“A simple analogy is like asking everyone to make a self declaration so that the government can determine how many Nigerians have attended a foreign university onsite when a simple information filtering will show that we need not bother 99% of Nigerians about it.

“The mere fact that the government is asking Nigerians to provide this declaration is a reflection that the country poorly handles data management. The same reason why many countries were able to easily administer palliatives to their citizens during this pandemic and we couldn’t.

“Your bank has an interest in getting this right so you can wait until they reach out to you. Banks have done a similar thing before under the US FATCA and they didn’t ask everyone to make a declaration. I am hopeful that banks will be able to do the same this time around”,

The report monitored by societynow.ng on dailypost.ng revealed that the Tax expert revealed his opinion on twitter.