Chairman, Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele has announced that Value Added Tax and Stamp duties will be exempted from property rent and purchase as enshrined in the new tax reform bills currently in the National Assembly.

Oyedele made the disclosure in Abuja at Building and Construction Industry Forum with the theme ?Nigeria?s Tax Reforms and the Building and Construction Industry: Implications and Opportunities,? organised by the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria and the Housing Development Advocacy Network.

According to Oyedele, ?Rent is exempted from VAT and other areas of controversies in the past. Also what we?ve done in the reform bills is to make them very clear so there?s no debate. Also, we?ve added that there will be stamp duties exemption for rents that is below 10 million Naira a month.

?So if you?re paying rents, which is what many people will do because they don?t own a house, you won?t have to pay stamp duties unless you?re a rich person who is paying a lot. It?s not like we are punishing rich people, it?s just that they have better ability to pay. Then capital gains tax is exempted on the sale of your dwelling house.?

He added that ?Withholding tax on construction will now be maximum of 2%, so which means the rate is significantly reduced,?

Also speaking, the Executive Director of the Housing Development Advocacy Network, Barr. Festus Adebayo advised that ?Since the tax reform is still in the National Assembly, the tax committee should consider the idea of putting incentive, tax rebate, or anything that can encourage some of those developers or investors to go into delivery of low-cost housing. Because today, the majority of those estate developers are facing a lot of hurdles in the area of rents, fees, they pay in many places,?

Earlier in his remarks, Bld. Samson Ameh Opaluwah, the Chairman of CORBON said the Forum became necessary to advance conversation on how the tax reform bills will help the growth and development of the construction sector. (Daily Trust)

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