MSMEs tasked on compliance with VAIDS as window closes June 30
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country have been urged to take advantage of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) window to regularise their tax liabilities before its expiration on June 30.
Making the call recently in Lagos during the Tax Compliance Clinic/Sensitisation for MSMEs on Understanding the Requirements and Benefits of Tax Compliance, the President/Chairman of Council, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Prince Degun Agboade, urged all MSME operators to strive to meet the deadline.
The NASME president who was represented by a member of the association’s Governing Council, Ladipo Bankole, said: “VAIDS will come to an end by June 30, 2018 as proclaimed by the government. As such, all hands must be on deck to meet up the deadline.”
Speaking at the tax compliance clinic, the Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) representative, Mr. Igho Orienru, advised MSMEs to, “do holistic tax checks, keep good records, take informed decisions and come under the VAIDS if you are eligible.”
Orienru stated that there is no hiding place for tax defaulters and evaders as government is collaborating with “international asset tracing and recovery firms to help in tracking persons believed to have underpaid their taxes yet have not participated in VAIDS,” among other steps
being taken by government to bring them to book. He warned that, “wilful tax evaders will face the full force of the law.”
Also speaking, OXFAM representative and Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) member, Nnenna Ugwu, stated that OXFAM was “committed to ensuring that MSMEs solve their tax issues.”
Addressing MSME operators specifically, she said: “If you start from today to see tax as your tithe,it is better for you. You must set apart that percentage that makes things work for you.
Chinyere Anyanwu, Sunnewsonline.com
