The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with His Royal Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), a United Kingdom revenue authority on capacity building.
This is contained in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja by Mr Johannes Wojuola, Special Assistant on Media and Communication to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami.
The statement quoted Nami as saying that the MoU signed in London on Thursday aims at fostering improved collaboration on capacity building between the two tax authorities.
The FIRS boss said that the collaboration was in line with his cardinal goals of building a data-centric tax authority and improving the Service’s collaboration and stakeholder relations.
“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 has become crucial if the Service must be ahead of the taxpayer in the times we are in.
“With increased collaboration between the Service and tax authorities the world over, 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 said.
He further said that with the collaboration, officers of the Service would be better equipped to improve tax revenue collection and in turn provide government with the needed resources to cater for Nigerians.
On his part, David Yellowly, Head of Capacity Building, HMRC emphasised that the MoU would see both countries collaborating on capacity building, particularly on issues surrounding Country-by-Country reporting standards.
“Others are transfer pricing, exchange of information, data and audit in the oil and gas industry,” Yellowly said.
The signing of the agreement was attended by the FIRS Executive Chairman, Nami accompanied by some members of the FIRS Board and management, and Director at HMRC, Jon Sherman, alongside other members of the HMRC Executive Committee.
