Akwa Ibom State Board of Internal Revenue Service (AKIRS) on Thursday, moved against the United Bank of Africa, UBA, over non-remittance of personal income taxes over a period of 10 years.
Director of Enforcement and Recovery of AKIRS, Mr Leo Leo Umana, who led a team of enforcement officials to the bank’s headquarters located along Udo Udoma Avenue in Uyo, the State Capital, told our source that recovery investigations exercise by the Board, revealed that the financial institution owe the state government over N336.2m in PAYE.
“We wrote several demand notices, followed them up with reminders and did not receive cooperation from the bank. So, we received approval from our Board to place notice of default and non-compliance at the bank’s premises,” Umana stated.
A Notice of Default and Non-Compliance sighted at the bank’s building reads; “This is to inform the general public that this organization has not been remitting the actual tax deductable from its employees’ salaries and other relevant taxes due to the State: hence failed to comply with the provisions of the relevant tax laws.
“In view of this, the organization is hereby given seven (7) days to comply else the Board will take legal action at the expiration of the seven (7) days notice.”
The notice also warns that unauthorized removal of the notice attracts appropriate sanctions.
Mr. Leo Leo Umana who expressed displeasure at the backlog of the tax debt, said the notice was aimed at recovering the debt that dated back to 2008.
He further disclosed that the state government through the new Board of Internal Revenue Service is embarking on enforcement and recovery of tax debt and urged tax invaders in the state to comply with their obligations.
He lamented that a lot of people still treat payment of taxes with levity, “yet, they enjoy the infrastructure and other social services provided by the state government and all these come from tax payers.
“Government everywhere are run by taxes and we cannot solely depend on money from the federation account. That is why we are ensuring that they pay tax,” Umana informed. (Source: IBOM REPORTERS.)
