*We introduced electronic tax clearance certificate to improve service delivery, check forgery, says chairman

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, PAC, Chairman, Busayo Oluwole Oke, has promised that the 9th National Assembly would support the Federal Capital Territory, Inland Revenue Services, FCT- IRS and other revenue generating agencies to enhance their operations

Oke gave the assurance when the Acting Executive Chairman of the Service, Mr. Haruna Abdullahi, appeared before the Committee on various issues raised against the Service which was referred to it by the house at plenary.

Oke advised that the Parliament should avail opportunities it could to assist it for effective operations for Abuja residents and the entire country.

This came as the FCT-IRS disclosed that it had introduced Electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (E-TCC) to improve service delivery and checkmate activities of fraudsters who could forge such document.

Abdullahi explained that the E-TCC had fortified the process thereby making it difficult for anyone to forge such document because of the introduction of QR CODE.

He said this effort would help the Service not to be short-changed as well as boost revenue for the FCT.

He further explained that Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) was a document being issued by the tax authority to certify that an individual or a business was compliant with the appropriate requirements as stated by law within a stipulated period of time usually for the three preceding years.

Abdullahi said that this is in line with section 85 of the Personal Income Tax Act 2011 as amended, which states;

“Whenever the relevant tax authority is of the opinion that tax assessed on the income of a person for the three years immediately preceding the current year of assessment has been fully paid or that no tax is due on income or that the person is not liable to tax for any of those three years, it shall issue a tax clearance certificate to the person within two weeks of demand for the certificate by that person or give reasons for the denial.”

According to him, while issuing a tax clearance certificate, due diligence must be carried out to ensure certain conditions were met by the taxpayers and satisfied by tax authority.

He stated that application for TCC must be made and duly endorsed by the taxpayer and annual income declaration form A and three years income declaration form must also duly completed and signed by the taxpayer.

The FCT-IRS boss also noted that personal emoluments which comprise of wages or salaries, including allowances, benefits in kind, gratuities, superannuation or pension schemes and any other income derived solely by reason of employment are declared.

Abdullahi added that income declared must be verified, satisfied and evidences of such income be cited while benefit in kind must also be verified based on section 4 of PITA 2011.

The chairman advised that taxpayers should always endeavor to declare their incomes accordingly with evidences that would be satisfactory to the mangers of the tax authority while due diligence would be carried out appropriately within the stipulated time.

“It is evident that the issuance of the TCC is at the discretion of the Service in its justification based on the items listed in section 31 of FCT-IRS Act, 2015 and PITA, 2011 (as amended) may issue or not issue a tax clearance certificate,” he concluded.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee urged the general public or taxpayers to report any violation of the law concerning issuance of TCC to the management of FCT-IRS.

Oke advised that the FCT-IRS should consider the legislative arm as collaborator who would work to ensuring smooth operation of the Service.

According to him, “We will support you in whatever way to generate more revenue in the FCT, try to have records of all the people resident in Abuja, the data is important, ask for bank statements to know the actual tax to collect.

We will support FCT-IRS and help the Service to bring more people to the tax net.”

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