Even Beggars will start paying tax soon – Federal Government

NIGERIA’S FINANCE MINISTER KEMI
ADEOSUN made this known in Lagos
at a lecture at PWC’s Business School,
with the theme: ‘Voluntary Assets
and Income Declaration Scheme
(VAIDS) Interactive Session for
Executives and Business Owners.
The government has also engaged the
services of asset tracing-companies
to investigate the tax payment status
of 150 firms/individuals. The minister
also disclosed that tax defaulters will
be investigated.
“We are working alongside projects
we have locally, like the Bank
Verification Number (BVN), records
of property ownership, records of
property allocation, records of
company ownership from the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),
among others. It is from these
projects that we look at how much
tax such companies or individuals
should be paying”.
”The investigators’ findings will
enable us compare the income and
how much tax the company/person is
really paying, and that gives us lots of
information. But we encourage
people to come up and pay their
taxes willingly.” “You can register a
high-end car. It tells me something
about your income. So we look at
your tax returns. If you registered
Mercedes E-Class and you are paying
N100,000 tax, then something is
wrong. Those are red flags. We now
have the capacity to assess people
accurately.”
Mrs Adeosun added that Nigerian
would be left out in the campaign to
enlarge the tax net, noting that some
beggars were earning millions.
She said the government will look at
their lifestyles and tax them, adding
that ;
“even proceeds from begging are
taxable. You are supposed to pay
taxes even if your means of income is
begging”.