First Thoughts: Post-Lockdown Musings

I have often heard some people say they usually get their inspiration to write from rather uncomfortable situations and experiences. I say, ‘well done to them’. I guess I need to learn how they manage to do this. So, I’ve been in traffic for the last three hours and guys, I can’t seem to get any inspiration from this experience and putting down my ‘First Thoughts’ for today’s Newsletter has been quite a challenge. I have been looking from my laptop to the window repeatedly as we move at snail speed. Once or twice, I have been tempted to step out of the car to stretch my legs but hey, this is Lagos, and this is the Third Mainland Bridge! Anything can happen! Hopefully, I would get home before I am done with this piece.

Welcome to the third part of this series.

We have been reviewing the tax reliefs made available by the Federal and State Governments to taxpayers to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, we have reviewed the tax reliefs made available in the following states: Lagos, Bayelsa, Kebbi, Gombe, Jigawa, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom and Yobe State. You can read them HERE.

First Thoughts:
Use and Disuse

Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s law of use and disuse remains a vital point of discourse for me. In summary, the law emphasizes that certain traits or characteristics develop based on their use or disuse and can be transferred hereditarily to progenies. I would prefer not to dwell on the somewhat controversial nature of the law, its criticisms or comparison to Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution among other lines of thought. Rather, I would relate the salient points of this law to our reality today.

Kola, an entrepreneur in Lagos State woke up to see multiple bank alerts on his phone much to his greatest surprise. No, those were not credit alerts but debit alerts, the worst alerts you can receive especially for transactions you did not initiate. As we progress in this article you would understand what those debits alerts were and no, he was not scammed either.

I am sure you realize that we are in unprecedented times. More than ever before the Federal Government of Nigeria is intensifying efforts to ensure that all non-oil revenue sources are revived.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) issued a Public Notice on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. The Public Notice seeks to provide clarification to Paragraph 2 of the Value Added Tax (VAT Modification) Order 2020 (Modification Order) made by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning (Minister) on February 3, 2020. We provide below, our synopsis and remarks on the Public Notice here. You can also find the Modification Order here.

Introduction:

In the first part of this series; ‘How to Reduce Your Personal Income Tax (PIT) Liabilities: The Voluntary Pension Contribution (VPC) Option!’ we discussed how Voluntary Pension Contribution (VPC) can be a Personal Income Tax (PIT) savings option as it is a tax-deductible contribution. We also went further to explain the benefits of making the VPC to the contributor and how to contribute. In today’s piece, we will be looking at another Personal Income Tax savings option: National Housing Fund (NHF).

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.