150 wealthy Nigerians face asset tax probe

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The Federal Government has engaged Kroll , a
United Kingdom- based forensic and assets -
tracing firm , and some other foreign firms to
trace the assets of very wealthy Nigerians at
home and abroad .
The names of 150 very wealthy Nigerians are
on the list for the first batch of the exercise ,
which is expected to last for some months .
The Minister of Finance , Mrs. Kemi Adeosun ,
confirmed at a press briefing in Lagos on
Thursday that the government had engaged
some foreign firms to trace the local and
foreign assets of some high net worth
Nigerians .
 give the names of the
other foreign firms the Federal Government
had engaged for the exercise nor names of the
wealthy Nigerians whose assets are being
traced .
Adeosun said the objective of the exercise was
to match the lifestyle of the wealthy
individuals with the amount of tax they were
paying to the Federal Government .
According to her , the government is building
the profile of people to encourage them to pay
the right taxes before wielding the big stick in
terms of prosecution at the end of the nine -
month window given for the payment of all
outstanding taxes under the newly introduced
Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration
Scheme
She said , “ How much we recover from their
purses is not as important as getting people
into the tax net and paying the right taxes.
Majority of people who are paying taxes at the
moment are the Pay As You Earn ; most of the
people whose taxes are being deducted at
source . But the people who are evading taxes
are either the people who own their
businesses or the high net worth individuals .
“ And ordinarily , they are supposed to pay the
biggest share of the tax revenue. What is
happening now is that the lower - end people
are carrying more of the burden , which is
unfair . Everybody has to carry their fair share
according to their level of income . That is how
progressive taxes work all over the world .
“ Remember that tax is one of the instruments
the government uses to redistribute income ; to
take from the rich to support the poor . That is
very fundamental. Not only do we recover
money from the people , it ( VAIDS ) is meant to
ensure that people pay the right taxes going
forward . ”
She added , “ The firms that we are using to
trace assets internationally are working
alongside the projects that we have locally.
“ And that project puts together records of
property ownership , foreign exchange
allocations, company ownership from the
Corporate Affairs Commission , and even
private jet registration so that we can build
profiles of people so that we have an idea of
how much tax should this person be paying
according to his or her lifestyle.
“ And then we compare it with how much tax
they are actually paying, and that is giving us
a lot of information that hopefully will
encourage people to come forward to do the
right thing . ”
According to the minister , the Federal
Government is looking at realising about $ 1 bn
from the VAIDS .

Speaking earlier at an interactive session for
executives and business owners on the VAIDS
hosted by PwC Nigeria , Adeosun said while
most developing countries had tax to Gross
Domestic Product ratios above 20 per cent ,
Nigeria had a low of six per cent .
In a bid to address this anomaly , she said the
Federal Ministry of Finance had set up the
VAIDS in collaboration with all 36 states of the
federation .
Is Specifically , it is expected to increase Nigeria ’ s
tax to GDP ratio from the current six per cent
to between 10 per cent and 15 per cent ,
broaden the national tax base , curb tax
evasion and discourage illicit financial flows .
The Executive Chairman , the Lagos Inland
Revenue Service , Mr . Ayo Subair said, “ We
have seen the positive impact taxpayers ’
money can make at the state level in terms of
social services , administration of government
and infrastructure development. ”
According to the Head of Tax , PwC Nigeria ,
Mr . Taiwo Oyedele, paying taxes is not
particularly easy anywhere in the world for
anyone who has expended time , energy and
other resources to earn the income .
However, he said , “ It is necessary for there to
be an organised society for the benefit of all .
We organised this session to discuss the
background , design and structure of the
VAIDS , key objectives , legal framework and
the step- by - step process for declaration ,
remediation and resolution . ”