Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the United Kingdom’s (UK His Royal Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster improved collaboration on the capacity building between the two tax authorities.
Both tax bodies signed the MoU on Friday, 17 March, 2023 in London, UK. In attendance were the Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami, some members of the FIRS Board and Management as well as Director, HMRC, Jon Sherman, alongside other members of the HMRC Executive Committee.
Speaking at the event, Nami noted that this collaboration was in line with his dual cardinal goals for the FIRS: Building a data-centric tax authority and improving the Service’s collaboration and stakeholder relations.
Nami stated: “I am certain that this relationship would equip our officers with the skills of the 21st-century tax man. Data is the new oil. Its collection, interpretation and consequent application for tax purposes are crucial for the Service to be ahead of the taxpayers in the times we are in.
“With increased collaboration between the Service and tax authorities the world over —which is one of the cardinal pillars of this current management — meticulous and purposeful management, as well as strategic interpretation of the information we exchange between each other has become a fundamental element of inter-tax-authority relations. These, among several others, form the major areas where we would be collaborating on capacity building with the HMRC. We must be a step ahead,” Nami noted.
The FIRS chief, who is also the President of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA), further explained that with the new collaboration officers of the Service would be better equipped to improve tax revenue collection and in turn provide the government with the much-needed resources to cater for Nigerians.
Also, commenting on the collaboration, David Yellowly, Head of Capacity Building at the HMRC, stressed that “the MoU between the Nigerian and UK revenue authorities would see the two countries collaborating on Capacity Building, particularly on issues surrounding Country-by-Country Reporting Standards, Transfer Pricing, Exchange of Information, Data, and Audit in the Oil and Gas industry.”
As Executive Chairman of the FIRS Nami has engendered numerous collaborative efforts with tax authorities domestically and across the world, in line with his agenda of improving stakeholder relations for improved tax administration.
In February this year, the FIRS signed an MoU with the Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) for collaboration on Joint Tax Audit, Exchange of Information and Capacity Building, Mr. Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola, Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman, FIRS(Media & Communication), disclosed in a statement made available to The Dream Daily Newspaper.
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