Adebayo Adenrele
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it will enforce payment of tax for social media content creators and influencers as they constituted a major block of tax evaders.
This was contained in a statement signed by Dare Adekambi, the Special Adviser on Media to the Chairman of the agency.
“They are not paying, Skit makers, influencers and other content creators who are making money using digital platforms need to be paying tax. There is a law in Nigeria that requires everybody who earns income to pay tax. They earn in dollars. Tax is a civic obligation; civil servants are paying, so they also have to pay.
“The CAC’s Registrar-General and the FIRS’ chairman recently discussed how they can work together in bringing them into the tax net. The challenge is how to track them, but we are looking into it,” Adekambi said.
He said the FIRS would meet with them and make them see why they should voluntarily pay tax, adding that “But if our friendly approach is taken for granted, then we will go for enforcement.
“If Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms are paying taxes to the government, why would people using those platforms to create content and make money not pay? By the time a committee is a set up to look into it, a broad spectrum of activities will be covered.
“There is a way the government monitors everything in other climes. One of the cardinal goals of the current FIRS chairman is to leverage technology and data. When you have these, revenue will be predictable and it will be easy for the government to plan,” he said.
