Recently, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) issued the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard (CRS)) Regulations, 2019. The effective date of the regulations is 1 July 2019. This follows Nigeria’s signing of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) and the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information, signed by Nigeria on 17 August 2017.
This regulation applies to all Nigerian Financial Institutions, except government entities, international organizations, central banks and any other entity that presents a low risk of being used to evade tax. Under this regulation, the affected financial institutions in Nigeria are required to file an “Information Return” with the information sets out by the FIRS and described in the guidelines. The filing deadline of the Information Return under the Regulations is 31 May of the year following the calendar year to which the return relates. Furthermore, there are rigid penalties apply for non-compliance with obligations under the regulations.
