Get ready to pay VAT on ONLINE TRANSACTIONS – FIRS tells Nigerians

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS tells Nigerians to get ready to start paying for Value Added Tax, VAT on online transactions.

Mr Babatunde Fowler, Chairman of FIRS made this revelation on Saturday during a recent interview with NAN in New York.

Fowler said: “soon, we will ask banks to impose VAT on online transactions for purchases of goods and services.

“Not that it is something new; it actually should be in existence.

“We will certainly follow up to make sure that every VAT that is due to be collected is collected.”

This move according to him was part of measures by FIRS to meet its N8 trillion revenue target for 2019.

According to The Federal Inland Revenue Service generated N1.5 trillion revenue in the first quarter of 2019, according to its Chairman, Mr Babatunde Fowler.

“In the first quarter (of 2019), what I will say is that in the non-oil sector, we generated 11 per cent higher than what we generated in 2018.

“Basically, we have generated about N1.5 trillion,” Fowler told NAN on the sidelines of a high-level meeting on illicit financial flows hosted by the United Nations General Assembly.

He said, “It is quite realistic as long as we have the cooperation of taxpayers in addition to deployment of technology.

“We have already started the enforcement of over 50,000 accounts that have banking turnover of 100 billion and above that have not filed their returns.”