As part of efforts to ensure tax compliance by residents and business owners in Kwara State, the Internal Revenue Service, (KW-IRS) North Central Nigeria, has conducted a mobile court within some business premises in Ilorin to prosecute three recalcitrant high net worth business owners who hide under associations to pay lesser taxes than what is due.
According to the Executive Chairman of the agency, Shade Omoniyi, having exhausted all necessary measures to ensure that taxpayers remit the appropriate taxes due to the State Government without any positive results, KW-IRS resorted to enforcement on the recalcitrant taxpayers in the early hours of Friday as provided under the relevant State Law.
Speaking during the legal action at their respective business premises, the magistrate pronounced that the business facilities be sealed following the evidence before the mobile court that the accused taxpayers defaulted in exercising their civic obligations.
According to the revenue service, taxpayers are enjoined to pay their tax liabilities as and when due to avoid being caught on the wrong side of the law.
Traders close shop in protest
Meanwhile, some traders and business men in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, under the aegis of the Igbo traders association, on Friday closed their shops in protest against what they described as alleged intimidation and over taxation of their businesses by the state revenue agency, the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS).
This development left many customers of the traders and business men stranded in such locations as Oko Erin, Ibrahim Taiwo Road and General Hospital area, among other places in the state capital.
The traders said that the revenue agency stormed their shopping complexes at about 10:00 am with revenue mobile court to prosecute them and lock up their business premises without being represented.
The people, who said that they were not indebted to the revenue agency, added that they are up to date in payment of their taxes and rates, describing the action of the revenue agency as unfair.
The business men also appealed to the State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to assist with tax waiver or tax holiday, considering the current economic hardship in the country.
According to them, many of their members stock their shops with goods received on credit.
The Coordinator of the 22 zonal Chairmen of Igbo Traders Associations in the state, who is also the chairman, building materials association, Surulere zone, Kwara state, Chief Aloysius Nwuorah, said that the tax office wanted to start collection of tax from individual members against existing agreement with the agency to get the tax collectively.
Also speaking, the first vice president, Igbo traders association, Chief Nathaniel Nwogu, led other leaders and members of the association to the revenue court premises and state House of Assembly to register their grievance, said that some of the business premises locked up deal in perishable goods.
Chief Nwuorah, who suggested a roundtable discussion among representatives of the revenue agency, the state government and the leadership of the Igbo traders association for amicable solution, said that there would not be business growth and development in any unfriendly environment.
“For years, we’ve had this arrangement with the state tax office to be collecting our taxes collectively and submit to them. In that way, the union have been able to identify our members who do not even have shops, or those who have three or four in a shop, and submit to the tax office.
“Once we submit that money, the tax office would issue receipts based on individual names we submit to them. The taxes are in categories of N7,000, N14,000, N25000, N45,000 like that annually.”
Comments are closed.