The Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), says it has set up an international unit that would tax giant digital companies like Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms in 2022.
According to the executive chairman of FIRS, Mohammed Nami, the tech giants have been included in the country’s tax bracket, adding that its new international tax department has been charged with the tax collection.
The new development, which was made known on Wednesday, shows that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is going forward with its plan to tax the digital economy.
Recall that the administration had stated that the social media companies have a significant economic presence in Nigeria, but not paying tax despite benefiting from the country’s large population, growing smartphone usage and internet penetration.
During his appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja, Nami said the 2022 projected revenue from FIRS rose by N5 trillion due to registration of Twitter and other social media platforms.
The total revenue target has been put at N10.1 trillion, with the Federal Government taking N2.053 trillion, while the state and local governments will share the rest.
Twitter and others are already registering with us, so we are aware. So we expect that the impact of those registrations would be felt positively by FIRS and that is why the targets are going up”, he added.
