HURIWA Endorses New FIRS Tax Administration Solution… Calls For More Sensitization Of The Tax Paying Population

The Albino Foundation Public Notice

In furtherance to the provisions of the Finance Act 2020 and impressed by the proactive steps adopted by the hierarchy of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ease tax compliance and modernise tax administration in the country, the leading civil society organisation in Nigeria; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has applauded the introduction of a new Tax Administration Solution (TaxPro-Max).

HURIWA said it is aware that through the TaxPro Max, taxpayers will be able to file returns electronically, pay taxes online, get instant credit for withholding taxes deducted from their income, ascertain capital allowance carried forward, loss carried forward to be utilised for subsequent income tax returns, generate tax clearance certificates, respond to tax assessments raised, keep track of outstanding debt and communicate with the FIRS local tax offices on other tax matters.

In a media statement by the National coordinator; Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director; Miss Zainab Yusuf, the Civil Rights group quoted the Executive Chairman, FIRS; Mr Muhammad Nami, as saying that “TaxPro-Max enables seamless registration, filling, payment of taxes, automatic credit of withholding tax and other credits to the Taxpayer’s accounts, among other features.

“The TaxPro-Max also provides a single-view to Taxpayers for all transactions with the Service.

“The TaxPro-Max platform is accessible at www.taxpromax.firs.gov.ng. From June 7, 2021, the TaxPro-Max becomes the channel for filing Naira-denominated tax returns in the country.”

According to him, all taxpayers have been notified that all naira-denominated tax returns are to be filed via the TaxPro-Max Solution in order to generate the obligatory Document Identity Number (DIN).

Describing the one-stop online platform (TaxPro Max) as a laudable effort by the FIRS in ensuring that taxpayers enjoy a seamless tax filing process and also ease compliance, the rights group called on the hierarchy of the FIRS to create more awareness by sensitizing the public on the modalities for implementing the system to fully maximise the benefits in addition to ensuring that data privacy measures are given priority.

HURIWA further noted that in view of the imminent migration from the current manual tax returns filing to the full implementation of automated filing on the platform, there is the need to allow for a transition phase, to ensure that the usual glitches associated with system integration is prevented while recommending for Implementation to be done in batches according to the current local tax office groupings i.e Large Tax Offices (Non-oil), Medium Tax Offices, Micro & Small Tax Offices e.t.c.

“To fully achieve the objective of introducing this innovative approach to tax collection in Nigeria, the FIRS must ensure that sufficient measures are put in place to ensure that concerns raised by users of the platform are promptly attended to and resolved. Overall, it is expected that this initiative, if properly managed, will improve tax compliance in Nigeria by reducing the related costs, time and inconvenience associated with manual returns filing”, HURIWA advised.

Continuing, HURIWA observed that this innovation is timely as over the past decade, there has been a strong global move towards digitalization and most sectors are gravitating towards improving and transforming their business operations. Accordingly, business functions and business processes are leveraging technology solutions to expand the use and context of digitized data. More so, HURIWA revealed that in most economies, tax authorities have also harnessed the benefits of digitalization and enhanced revenue collection through seamless adoption of technology.

HURIWA recalled that as part of the relentless digitization efforts to ease tax compliance and modernise tax administration, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had in 2017 announced the introduction of six (6) new electronic tax services (e-services) for the convenience of taxpayers in Nigeria including:

e-Registration: for the registration of new taxpayers with FIRS