FCT IRS explains reason for sending SMS to taxpayers

The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT IRS) says the Short Message Service (SMS) sent to Federal Government workers and those resident in the territory is in order.

According to the Executive Chairman of FCT IRS, Mr. Abdullahi Attah, the SMS is in compliance with the law which mandates the Service to do so.

Attah said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.He explained that the law required every taxable individual to file a tax return within 90 days after the end of the financial year.

The executive chairman said that taxpayers were mandated and expected to file the tax return between January and March 31 yearly.

According to him, the text messages are also to remind taxpayers to comply with the law.

“There is a form known as form A which the taxpayers need to obtain or download from our website, fill and submit to any of our 11 offices across the territory.

“People can log onto www.fctirs.gov.ng to get the Form A downloaded or any other thing they need to do that requires visiting our website.

“The taxpayers on our data base are many and so it makes it difficult for us to print such forms and start distributing to them.”

He said “we are still very young as a tax agency, just two years old. We are working in such a way that soon, our taxpayers will be filing such return online.”

According to him, you don’t need to go to our offices but to do everything electronically.

“For now, you have to submit them in any of the 11 offices we have in the FCT and we shall collate them thereafter.

“We have published this in the national dailies sensitise people paying tax in FCT with a view to educating them and we shall continue to do so,” he explained.

The chairman expressed the hope that in a short time to come, Nigerians would get use to this system, so, there would not be any need to remind them to do what was required of them by law.

He noted that paying tax was not enough but the taxpayers must ensure they file their tax returns at the end of every year in accordance with the law.

Attah also said that the taxes being paid by Federal Government workers and those resident in the FCT were being collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) before his agency fully took over in January 2018.

He added that during the process, all the files of taxpayers who used to pay taxes to the FIRS before had been handed over to FCT IRS.

NAN recalls that the act establishing the FCT IRS was passed into law in February 2015. (NAN)