FIRS froze MultiChoice Nigeria’s accounts in 2022 and served
MultiChoice Group with a N1.8tn ($1.27bn) tax claim for its Nigeria operation
and a $342m claim for value-added taxes.
The group said in a statement that the total tax amount of
N35.4bn to be paid by MultiChoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa Holdings would
be offset against the security deposits and good faith payments made to date.
MultiChoice is the owner of the satellite television, DSTV,
a popular subscription-based platform in Nigeria.
MultiChoice said in a statement on Thursday that “In terms
of the agreement, MultiChoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa shall pay a total
tax amount of N35.4bn ($37.3m), to be offset against the security deposits and
good faith payments made to date.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Multichoice
Nigeria, Caroline Oghuma, did not respond to phone calls as of the time of
filing this report.
In 2021 tax agency appointed some commercial banks to
recover the sum of N1.8tn following the groups’ continued refusal to grant FIRS
access to their servers for audit.
The then FIRS Executive Chairman Muhammad Nami had said,
“The level of non-compliance by MultiChoice Africa, the parent Company of
MultiChoice Nigeria is very alarming. The parent company, which provides
services to MCN, has never paid Value Added Tax since its inception.”
The tax agency also complained that the group persistently
breached all agreements and undertakings with the service, “they would not
promptly respond to correspondences, they lack data integrity and are not
transparent as they continually deny FIRS access to their records.”
MultiChoice later went to court to challenge the penalty
imposed by the tax authority for skipping taxes and denying auditors access to
its servers.
In March 2022, MultiChoice and FIRS reached a resolution for
their tax disputes. As a result, MultiChoice withdrew all ongoing lawsuits, and
FIRS conducted a forensic audit to determine the accurate tax liability.
The statement then read in part, “By the broad terms of the
agreement, MultiChoice shall withdraw all pending lawsuits towards an amicable
resolution of the dispute.
“Also, as part of the agreement, the FIRS commenced a
forensic systems audit of MultiChoice accounts on Tuesday, 8 March, 2022 to
determine the tax liability of the Company.”
Approximately 34 per cent of the MultiChoice group’s total
revenue comes from Nigeria, followed by Kenya at 11 per cent, and Zambia in
third place with around 10 per cent.
The remaining African countries where the group operates
contribute about 45 per cent to the total revenue, according to the group’s
report.
0 comments:
Post a Comment