Nigerians To Start Paying Tax For Using Facebook From January

Nigerians will start paying value added tax (VAT) for using Facebook, beginning from 1st of January 2022.

According to report gathered by 9news Nigeria, the tax is directly to Nigerians who use the platform as a means to market or sell their products.

Already, Facebook has started informing users on the platform of the development via email.

With the development, Nigerians will now pay a VAT at the applicable rate of 7.5 percent.

The email to Facebook users seen by Oriental Times reads: “Due to implementation of a value-added tax (VAT) in Nigeria, Facebook is required to charge VAT on the sale of ads to advertisers, regardless of whether you’re buying ads for business or personal purposes.

“All advertisers with a business country of Nigeria will be charged an additional 7.5% VAT on advertising services purchased beginning 1 January 2022.

“If you’re registered for VAT and provide your VAT ID, your VAT ID will show up on your ads receipts. In the event that you’re entitled to recover VAT, this may help you recover any VAT you paid to the Nigerian tax authorities if you are a VAT registered business in Nigeria”.

The new tax regime is in pursuant of the Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order, introduced in 2020 as an amendment of the Finance Act 2019.

The document imposes tax on any “foreign entity with respect to certain services or digital transactions tax foreign digital service providers offering services to Nigerians and earning revenue in naira.

Also, this is carried in the Finance Bill 2021, which scaled second reading at the Red Chamber of the National Assembly (NASS) on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the federal government has in recent times gone hard on social media platforms, especially Twitter.

The Nigerian government slammed an indefinite suspension on the operations of the microblogging platform in the country, citing activities capable of undermining the nation’s corporate existence. And till date the suspension is yet to be lifted.

To be captured into the CIT net beginning from next year as well are social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, among others.

All foreign digital companies involved in transmitting, emitting, or receiving signals, sounds, messages, images or data of any kind including e-commerce, app stores, and online adverts are also captured into the CIT net.

Also in the coming year, the federal government has proposed to widen the Company Income Tax Act (CITA) to a broad segment of businesses covered by lottery and gaming.

Such businesses include: “betting, game of chance, promotional competition, gambling, wagering, video poker, roulette, craps, bingo, slot or gaming machines and the likes”.

Also, the Finance Bill 2021 seeks to bar those without Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) from opening bank accounts. Besides, account holders would no longer be allowed to operate their accounts without providing TIN.