The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has made a clarification on its plan to impose astamp duty charge on tenancy.
Muhammad Nami, FIRS executive chairman who spoke at a webinar organised by OTISVIP, said the six percent stamp duty charge on tenancy previously announced will only apply to tenancy and lease agreements that are above 21 years.
According to him, tenancy and lease agreements less than seven years would carry 0.78 percent stamp duty while agreements between seven and 21 years will carry a three percent charge.
Nami urged Nigerians to accept the fact that the country can no longer rely solely on crude revenue to fund the budget, hence the need to embrace taxation as the new normal of national fiscal policy.
A statement released by the director of FIRS communications and liaison department, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, partly read;
“While all panellists agreed on the need for taxation to complement government’s revenue flow from natural resources, a lively debate ensued on the timing of the stamp duty campaign and the public debate surrounding the application of tax revenue in the nation-building processes, especially in building public infrastructure.
“The panellists stressed the need for prudent management of tax revenue even as they enjoined Nigerians to embrace the fact that the tax net needs to get wider to accommodate more citizens for holistic national development.”
Mathew Gbonjubola, FIRS director of tax policy said citizens must reassess the notion that Nigeria is rich explaining that “in terms of gross domestic product vis-à-vis our population, Nigeria is not a rich country when compared to a country like Botswana”.
He also stated that that the stamp duty is levied on the instrument of the transaction and not on the payment itself.
