FIRS to Introduce Electronic Tax Clearance Certificates

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will soon introduce electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) system to help reduce fraudulent certificates.

Mr Kola Okunola, Director ICT, FIRS, said in a presentation at the on-going training by Journalism.com Ltd., in collaboration with FIRS on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that the implementation of the e-TCC verification system had reached an advanced stage, adding that it was undergoing user’s acceptance test before deployment to production.

Okunola said, “TCC will be out in the next four weeks. It will provide an e-repository of all TCCs issued by FIRS.

“It will enable FIRS Staff and authorised third parties to verify tax clearance certificates, thereby reducing the incidence of fraudulent certificates.

“It automatically sends Tax Clearance Certificates to the emails of taxpayers and also enables them to request for and print their TCCs online.’’

He mentioned that the service recently commenced modalities for implementation of robust VAT automation mechanism for power, telecommunications, e-commerce, financial services, oil and gas, insurance, major hotels, malls and hospitality sectors.

Okunola also said that the essence of VAT automation in the sectors was to help ensure transparency of tax remittance within the industry and help block leakages.

“ Meanwhile, FIRS management is currently adding additional payment gateway channels such as e-Transact to help expand the scope and widen the tax net,’’ he added.

Okunola further said that regular conduct of taxpayer sensitization was ongoing, adding that FIRS established the Federal Enlightenment and Engagement Tax Team (FEETT) to educate taxpayers on their tax obligations and rights.

According to him, FIRS has also installed customized digital signage that had been installed in FIRS Large Tax Offices nationwide to enhance taxpayers enlightenment as part of the efforts geared towards continuous taxpayer education.

Source (NAN)

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