Nami Rallies CITN, ICAN, ANAN on Tax Standardization

Mr. Muhammad Nami, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), is rallying the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) on standardization of tax practice in the country.

He hosted council members of the three bodies in Abuja, yesterday, where he charged them to lead conversations on matters of tax policy and tax laws in the country.

Mr. Nami, while calling for a value-based leadership approach from the councils, urged the professional bodies to work hand-in-hand with the Service to deepen the FIRS institutional framework through qualitative reporting and effective representation of their clients.

He said, “Our professional bodies need to speak on matters of tax policies and tax laws especially on proposals to annual Finance Bills.

“We also urge you to help the Service to deepen the institutional framework through quality reporting and effective representation of clients by our professional colleagues.

“We need to stem the tide in improving financial reporting to reduce the spate of ‘copy and paste’ financial reporting systems as we experience today.”

The chairman stated that the tax authority had adopted renewed strategies to tackle financial reporting concerns.

Mr. Nami noted that the FIRS had created new departments such as the Intelligence, Strategic Data Mining and Analysis Department, the Special Crimes Department, the Tax Incentives Management Department and the Emerging and Special Taxes Department, which he stated were at the forefront of unraveling financial reporting issues through data mining.

He revealed that the FIRS and State Inland Revenue Services were collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to build a database to improve tax investigation.

Other strategies include the accreditation of tax consultants and auditors in the FIRS, the review of data from Automatic Exchange of Information as well as increased enforcement actions.

In his response, Professor Benjamin Osisioma of ANAN noted that failure to cooperate amongst the three bodies would lead to chaos in tax practice regulation in the country.

“If we fail to cooperate and collaborate, we would destroy what we are trying to build,” he stated.