As you may know, the 2020 Personal Income Tax (PIT) Returns filing season is upon all tax residents of Lagos State. As you may also recall, the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) had extended the deadline for 2020 PIT Returns filing from the statutory Monday, March 30, 2020 to Tuesday, June 30, 2020 (https://taxaide.com.ng/2020/05/21/lirs-notice-on-extension-of-2019-pit-returns-filing/) as a palliative in the face of the global health pandemic. We provide below, some information and updates on the compliance requirements of the 2020 PIT Returns filing process in Lagos State.
What is to be Filed?
The PIT Returns required to be filed is a self-report on all income (employment and other incomes) earned by relevant Taxpayer from all sources in the 2019 calendar year.
Who is Required to File?
While the law requires everyone to file their PIT Returns (regardless of whether their employers volunteered their information in the PAYE Returns filing process due earlier on January 31, 2020), LIRS for administrative reasons only currently mandatorily requires the following categories of persons to file PIT Returns:
- Persons that LIRS considers to be high net-worth individuals (HNIs). Typically, LIRS will write to these persons and require them to file their PIT Returns. Accordingly, it is no defense to any of the persons in your organization to claim that since their details were part of your PAYE Returns, they do not need to file their PIT Returns, especially if they receive a letter from LIRS. Recall that we had mentioned that, by law, everyone is actually required to file PIT Returns. Thus, any person who receives a filing request from LIRS or the LIRS HNI Unit should file his or her PIT Returns.
- Persons who earn other incomes outside of their employment income; which employment income, you would recall, was captured in their employers’ PAYE Returns. Such other incomes include directors’ fees, rental income, dividends, interests et.al. Anyone in this category is required to separately file his or her PIT Returns declaring such income.
- Self-employed persons.
Please see: https://taxaide.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/HNI-Frequently-asked-question.pdf for the relevant LIRS Public Notice on this issue.
How is the Filing to be Done?
LIRS now requires all PIT Returns in Lagos State to be filed electronically via the URL: www.etax.lirs.net. You require a Taxpayer Identification Number (Payer ID) to assess this service. Please let us know if anyone in your organization is still without a Payer ID.
What can Taxaide Do?
At Taxaide, we manage the tax affairs of HNIs and persons who require us to privately manage their PIT accounts and compliances with their relevant tax authorities. This category includes entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, expatriates, et.al. We are accordingly able to, on individual levels, advise and assist these Taxpayer with their tax compliances and tax authority engagements.
As at today, our operations extend to all States in Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory. We also assist Clients with dual/multiple tax residencies (that is, who in addition to Nigeria, maintain tax residence in other jurisdictions) to manage their Nigerian tax obligations, taking full benefit of the tax rebate options afforded them by law. At the heart of all our tax services, is to ensure that our Clients sustainably minimize their tax payouts while ensuring optimal compliance.
Please reach out to us or refer any of your HNIs or other interested persons to our PIT Management service. Thank you.
We have also provided a more convenient and do-it-yourself option through our application, PiTApp available on: http://www.pitapp.taxit.com.ng.
For more information on Personal Income Tax Returns Filing and all tax-relatedissues, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
Tel: +234 700 TAXAIDE (0700 829 2433), +234 1 631 0971
WhatsApp: +234 810 701 7274
Email: pitdesk@localhost, business@localhost
