Osun Seals Tax Defaulting Banks And Insurance Companies

The State of Osun Internal Revenue Service (OIRS) has sealed off keystone Bank,Bank of Agric and Industrial and General Insurance Company, all situated in Osogbo,the state capital for not effecting the payment of outstanding unremitted withholding tax payable to the State of Osun Government in pursuant to the Back-Duty-Investigation Exercise duly conducted for years 2012 to 2014.
This was made known by the Special Adviser to Mr. Governor on Tax and Revenue Matters, Mr. Jimoh Akano today after the exercise.
He said the action aims at giving a bite to the company’s non-compliance to ensure remittance of all the outstanding money due to the State.
In his own statement, the Acting Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Osun Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Bicci Alli said that the step taken to seal off the companies is in line with the provision of Section 104 of the personal Income Tax Act 2004 LFN (as amended in 2011) and will not be reopened for business until full compliance is attained.
Mr. Bicci Alli further explained that several meetings had been held with their representatives in the last three years in order to resolve the outstanding tax which proved abortive.
He stressed further that Osun Internal Revenue Service has intensified its efforts on advocacy, publicity and enlightenment programmes on the statutory obligations of the citizenry for voluntary compliance by paying their taxes promptly as prescribed in the Nigeria constitution and the applicable tax legislations.
In spite of its efforts, some corporate organizations and individuals still engage in several violations. As a result of this, government is set to begin enforcement of tax payment, prosecution of all tax defaulters in the State to ensure that the defaulters are made to face the full scale of the law.
He however explained that Personal Income Tax Act mandates all taxable institutions to file its annual tax return for the preceding year at the expiration of 90 days from the commencement of every year of assessment, a taxable person or corporate organization who fails to file its returns with State Internal Revenue Service by the stipulated date is in breach of the provisions of the law.