Category: Nigeria

SEC, ICPC Inaugurate Anti-corruption Unit to Boost Capital Market Integrity

James Emejo in Abuja
 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday inaugurated the Anti-corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) in the former to boost integrity as well as enhance transparency in its operations. Speaking at the launch in… – Continue reading

Nigeria, Seychelles Seek Closer Ties

Abuja — NIGERIA and Republic of Seychelles relations Wednesday received a boost even as both countries have renewed commitment to further strengthen bilateral relations between them. Speaking during the presentation of his Credence Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, in Abuja, the Honourary Consul of Seychelles… – Continue reading

We stayed, you didn’t: Post-conflict Africa grapples with tensions of returnees from the diaspora

Although the importance to Africa’s diaspora is largely discussed around remittances, many Africans are also coming back to join the public service. SOMALIA’S parliament just approved a new parliament, a crucial step on the road to voting on a new constitution and presidential elections scheduled for 2016. A key role… – Continue reading

Leaked Files Link Abdulsalami Abubakar, Chris Garba to $182m Halliburton Bribery Scandal

Davidson Iriekpen with agency report New records obtained by the Paris-based Le Monde newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have unveiled more details on the $182 million Halliburton bribery scandal in Nigeria that indicted several top government official, in the country who received the bribes, but for… – Continue reading

Africa loses $50bn in illicit finance flows

Weak governance means Africa loses more than $50bn each year in unpaid taxes and money laundering, a new report has found. The analysis, published jointly by the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, concluded that a lack of financial transparency and difficulties in obtaining systematic data… – Continue reading

Tax systems and the 183 days’ rule

The conditions for becoming tax-resident and tax non-resident vary from country to country and depend on such things as length of stay, type of accommodation, location of family, and nationality. In most tax systems, presence of an individual in a country for 183 days or more in any 12-month period… – Continue reading

PwC pushes for FATCA implementation in Nigeria

PwC Nigeria, a leading professional services firm, has challenged financial institutions operating in Nigeria and the sector’s regulators on the need to develop a regulatory framework to drive the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the country. Andrew S. Nevin, a partner at PwC Nigeria and… – Continue reading

Transfer Pricing Compliance in Nigeria: What Next? (3)

AN essential part of the Transfer Pricing (TP) documentation process is that of finding and selecting closely comparable companies.  Only comparable, independent companies can truly establish the arm’s length nature of the intercompany transactions under review. This process of finding comparable companies and the arm’s length price they pay or… – Continue reading

Tax and investment protection trends in Africa in 2014 and predictions for 2015

In the African tax sphere, the trend remains for headline tax rates to continue to remain stable or decrease. Withholding tax rates have generally remained stable, although the experience of Dentons and our clients is that African tax authorities are requiring tax to be withheld from payments that have not… – Continue reading

Nigeria – Transfer pricing forms, non-resident company tax returns

November 28: Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service previously indicated that it would no longer accept tax returns filed by non-resident companies on a “deemed profit basis,” but that non-resident companies must  file their tax returns on an “actual profit basis.” These returns are to include audited financial statements as well… – Continue reading

Nigeria: Still On the Taxation of Foreign Companies Operating in Nigeria

IN July 2014, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sent letters to some tax consultants requesting their non-resident clients operating in Nigeria to file complete tax returns effective from 2014 tax year. In practice, non-resident companies file their tax returns on the deemed profit basis. Following an initial period of… – Continue reading

Chevron’s multi-billion tax dodging: We don’t agree

You know those annoying “We Agree” television ads by the fossil fuel corporate giant Chevron? The ones where an actor playing a student or a concerned member of a community “agrees” with supposedly noble objectives of this multinational? Those ads make me feel like puking. The objective of this campaign… – Continue reading

Nigeria: Transfer Pricing Africa (Part II)

n this second part of our overview of current transfer pricing regulations on the African continent, we focus on relevant provisions in, amongst others, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. The Ghanaian Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2012 (L.I.2188) (the Ghanaian Regulations) were introduced by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on 27 July 2012,… – Continue reading

Key Tax Considerations of Sending Employees Overseas

The issue of international assignees was, for a long time, limited to a small number of companies – meaning only those that operated on an international scale. But in recent years, global expansion has shifted into focus for the larger business community. As a result, the challenges and best practices… – Continue reading

Double Tax Arrangements in Nigeria: Imperatives for a wider network

THE National Tax Policy (NTP) has identified double taxation as one of the major hindrances to the growth of the Nigerian economy. Double taxation has become an issue paramount to investors and top executives of multinationals as income is generally taxable both in source and residence countries. In order to… – Continue reading

Our Swiss dilemma

With new laws in place, recovery from Swiss banks can be little easier provided the government shows sincerity in taking action against tax dodgers   Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in recent days has expressed the government’s firm conviction to bring back untaxed money of “US$ 200 billion” stashed in… – Continue reading

Administration of withholding tax (2)

The organisations making the payments are required to withhold tax from such payments and pay over the withheld amounts to their respective relevant Tax Authorities within 30days of receipt of payment or credit by the person or entity suffering the Tax. The relevant tax authorities to receive the WHT tax… – Continue reading

Compliance by Nigerian financial institutions with United States FATCA: caught between a rock and a hard place?

The Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act is a United States legislation that requires non-U.S foreign financial institutions (‘FFIs’) to identify and disclose their United States financial account holders to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or otherwise be subject to a punitive 30% US withholding tax with respect to any… – Continue reading

iCreate and Convey team up to help global banks fast-track FATCA compliance

• Partnership creates end-to-end solution for enabling and ensuring FATCA compliance, including: data consolidation, indicia identification, additional KYC data/document capture, alerts/notifications and dashboards to monitor compliance, withholding calculations and remittance, and tax reporting. Banking analytics, risk and compliance pioneer, iCreate, today announced a strategic partnership with tax information reporting leader,… – Continue reading

Nigeria, Other African States Seek World Bank’s Assistance on Illicit Financial Flows

By Nduka Nwosu and  Steve Omanufeme  in Washington DC Nigeria and other African countries have asked the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund  (IMF), to help them arrest the intractable problem of illicit financial outflows from the continent. The Coordinating Minister for the Economy (CME)… – Continue reading

Capital flight: An epidemic that must be stopped

Recent news stories, past reports and current anecdotal evidence suggest the flight of capital from Nigeria is reaching epidemic proportions. Nigeria is fast becoming a net exporter of students, patients and financial capital. Last week, news about Nigerian millionaires, the freezing of stolen assets, the flying habits of wealthy Nigerians… – Continue reading

Tax Evasion Threatens Africa’s Socio- Economic Transformation: UN Expert

The quest of African countries to carry out economic stability and transformation is threatened by illicit financial outflows through tax evasion and avoidance, a UN expert observed here on Thursday. He said the draining of tax revenues and scarce foreign exchange resources stifled growth and socio-economic development and weakened governance…. – Continue reading