DTA: NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

ByKolawole Banwo

Snr. Program Officer, (Policy and legislative Advocacy),Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC

International Tax Academy

December 1-6 2014

A Tax Treaty Secretariat under the Tax Policy and Legislation Department of Federal Inland Revenue Service responsible for handling all matters relating to initiating, negotiating and concluding Tax Treaties;

A Nigerian Model Double Taxation Agreement in place but under review

10 Double Taxation Agreements in force between Nigeria and United Kingdom, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Canada, Romania, Pakistan, South Africa, China and Italy (limited to Air and Shipping business);

There are seven negotiated DTAs but are still in the process of being domesticated: Nigeria-Spain, Nigeria-South Korea, Nigeria-Sweden, Nigeria-Tunisia, Nigeria-Mauritius, Nigeria-Algeria, and Nigeria-Denmark.

Two previously Negotiated DTAs are to be renegotiated: Nigeria-Bulgaria and Nigeria-Turkey;

Recently concluded a workshop on Review of the Nigerian Model DTA, Existing Tax Treaties with a view to Designing Strategies for DTA negotiation and preparing a Revised Nigerian DTA model.

An administrative arrangement on exchange of information under the Tax Policy and Legislation Department of FIRS;

Relative capacity for sourcing the information required from the relevant State Internal Revenue Service under EOI

There is an Exchange of information (EOI) Unit with focal officers for EOI work;

Maintenance of records for exchange of information requests.

There is a draft Exchange of Information manual in place;

Absence of well- defined Tax Treaty Policy and Strategies for negotiating Tax Treaties;

Lack of adequate negotiating skill on the part of the Nigerian technocrats as compared to their counterparts from the advanced nations;

Poor Literacy level and Poor culture of record keeping by businesses impact negatively on exchange of information;

The need for improved skills of the personnel responsible for carrying out EOI work.

Capacity Building of the personnel responsible for carrying out tax treaty negotiation and exchange of information work;

Preparation of a Revised Nigeria Model DTA that will be aligned with current realities;

Articulating well defined Tax Treaty policy and negotiation strategies for Nigeria based on lessons learnt at the recently concluded Tax treaty workshop;

Thank you for listening