Beneficial Ownership and Tax Ownership in Nigeria: How to Stem the Tide

In the year 1956, just shortly before the Nigerian independence, the Foster-Sutton Commission of inquiry was set up by the colonial government to investigate the then Premier of the Eastern region, Nnamdi Azikiwe, for his involvement in the affairs of the African Continental Bank (ACB).

Under the code of conduct for ministers, a government officer was required to relinquish his holdings in private businesses when he held office. However, the Foster-Sutton tribunal strongly believed that Nnamdi Azikiwe, even as minister, did not sever his holdings in the ACB, and that he continued to use his influence to further the interests of the bank, and in favour of his group of companies.

Indeed, while the case remains one of the leading cases on corruption even in pre-independence Nigeria, one is tempted to classify it among the country’s many corruption schemes perpetuated through beneficial ownership systems.

What Is Beneficial Ownership?

According to the Black’s Law Dictionary, the term ‘Beneficial owner’ is a legal term wherein specific property rights (“use and title”) in equity belong to one person, even though legal title of the property belongs to another person. Accordingly, it always happens where the legal title owner has implied trustee duties to the beneficial owner.

In more contemporary terms, a “beneficial owner” is defined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as referring to natural person(s) who ultimately owns or controls a customer and/or the natural person on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted.

4 Fundamental Facts about Personal Income Tax (PIT) Incentives in Nigeria

  • Did You Know that tax incentives are deductions, exclusions or exemptions from a tax liability offered as an enticement to engage in a specified activity that would benefit the economy of a country in the long run?  
  • Did You Know that tax incentives are government measures intended to encourage individuals and businesses to either invest money into the economy or save money by reducing the amount of tax they are liable to pay
  • Did You Know also knowthat, in Nigeria, there are some incentives on Personal Income Taxes (PIT)?
  • The following are the four fundamental facts you need to know about the incentives given for PIT in Nigeria:
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THE TAXAIDER NEWSLETTER VOL 1.11 (NOVEMBER 2019)

The National Bureau of Statistics recently released Q3 2019 reports and I had cause to actually wonder if perhaps we were finally getting something right. The recent border closure and its attendant effects have been met with a lot of reactions from people across all divides in Nigeria. It was a sudden paradigm shift. For once, it was looking like the leadership had finally found the nerve to make certain daring changes and because this wasn’t something we were quite used to, the resulting apprehension was quite understandable in all fairness.

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Nigeria’s CRS Regulations: 12 Things your Financial Institution should Know + Do

On July 1, 2019, Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) made the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) to regulate how financial institutions are to report on the accounts maintained by persons that are not tax-resident in Nigeria or the United States of America. In this brief, we itemize 12 things your financial institution should know and do under the Regulations

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5 Easy Steps for Paying Taxes for Free (Pay As You Earn – PAYE) to the Lagos State Government with TaxiTPay®

Did you know that paying taxes could be made in minutes?

Here’s a guideline on how to remit taxes on TaxiTPay®

  1. Open a TaxiTPay® Account  on www.TaxiTPay.com.ng
  2. On the dashboard, Click payment. Select Taxes; then select P-A-Y-E
  3. Fill in the company’s details in the Employee Section and the description section
  4. Click Browse; select your schedule which should include details such as the name of the employees, their citizenship, gross monthly salary, monthly tax deductible, monthly tax remitted
  5. Click upload. Your payment goes straight to the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS)

How easy was that? And you know the best part; it is absolutely free!

I can’t wait to have your feedback on the process and how you made your tax remittances easily.

N.B: To remit taxes (PAYE) through TaxiTPay, your wallet needs to be funded. This is can be done easily with your debit or credit card.

The TaxaideR Newsletter Vol 1.10 (October 2019)

In a few hours, the month of October would elapse, and would effectively usher in November, the second to the last month of the year. I believe it is safe to say the bells would be jingling soon in anticipation of Christmas. One remarkable thing separates Christmas from every other celebration all over the world. It remains the most popular, most generally accepted and biggest celebration that people of all walks of life, religion and social standing cannot help but identify with. I think I should catch myself quickly and come back to reality. Christmas is still at least a good seven weeks away!

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