Taxpayers in Nigeria are now entitled to a Consolidated Relief Allowance (CRA) of N200,000, a top official of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has said.
Mr Samuel Ogungbesan, Coordinating Director, Field Operations of FIRS, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a workshop organised for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the amended Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) of 2011.
Ogungbesan told tax administrators of MDAs that the allowance was a major highlight of some “radical changes’’ introduced in the new PITA which was signed into law in March.
A key thrust of the Act mandates the President, the Vice President, governors, their deputies and other political office holders to pay taxes on their allowances with effect from April.
He listed other highlights of the amended PITA to include a penalty of N5 million or imprisonment for three years or both for failure to confirm Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) from the tax authority that issued same.
“The introduction of Consolidated Relief Allowance of N200, 000 or 1 per cent of gross salary or whichever is higher plus 20 per cent of gross salary.
“All taxpayers are now mandatorily required to file self-assessment of their income tax returns.’’
According to him, the new law empowers the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct at source from budgetary allocation to MDAs the amount of tax that they failed to deduct and remit to the relevant tax body.
“The Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2011 introduced some radical changes into the administration of PITA, hence the need for this sensitisation exercise.
“So that all stakeholders will be familiar with these changes, so that nobody will be caught on the wrong side of the law,’’ he said.
The introduction of CRA seeks to ensure uniformity in the assessment of taxable persons and also simplify the process of arriving at the personal income tax payable by an individual.
The workshop was declared open by the acting Chairman of the FIRS, Mr Kabir Mashi.
Mashi announced the establishment of a new department dedicated to handing PITAS matters in the FCT known as Individual and Enterprises Income Tax Department.
He said that the department would handle personal income tax administration matters for large, medium, micro and small tax payers.
According to him, the management of FIRS has “segregated’’ tax payers into three categories.
They are large taxpayers, those with turnover of N1 billion, medium taxpayers, those with income of N200 million to N999 million and below N200 million for micro and small tax payers.
- NAN