Nigeria calls on UN for Fair International Tax Practices

Nigeria has again called on the United Nations on International tax Community to forge an inclusive Equitable fair and universally beneficial International tax system towards the attainment of the 2030 sustainable development goals.

Making the call on behalf of the country, Mr Mohammed Nami the executive chairman of the federal internet Revenue Service
stated this while delivering Nigeria’s statements of economic and social Council special meeting on International
cooperation in Tax Matters held last Friday at the ECOSOC chamber United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Mr Nami noted that the Nigerian delegation is concerned about the global minimum tax as put forward by the OECD inclusive
framework because of its low rate and the way it was negotiated to benefit the home countries of multinationals.

Economist, Tax Manager with Price Water HouseCoopers, Mr Abiodun Kayode Ali speaking on Business Nigeria on Friday said what we are currently seeing is a situation whereby different multinational companies are trying as much as possible to take advantage of present International tax structures.

He said prior to this period in the 1920s, we had an international tax structure whereby you could only be taxed if a multinational had an entity that was physically present in a local jurisdiction.

We have these solutions that were being reeled out by the organization for economic cooperation and development to
try and modify that system.

Mr Ali noted that as the world has become a global village with the advancement of technology, most transactions can now be done from the comfort of your home digitally.

As a result of digital economy, we now have a situation whereby a lot of multinationals can actually generate Revenue without being physically present in your nation.

A lot of nations now practice what is called Digital Taxation.

In order to solve all these problems that have been created by the digital economy as well as other nations trying to attract multinationals in their own country by lowering the tax rate, a form of incentive for them in order to address most of all these Global taxation issues then the OECD along with the G20 one of the industrialized group of Nations as well as other nations like Nigeria for instance decided to come together to form what is referred to as an inclusive framework to see how they can address most of these issues that are being caused by digital system and to ensure that they derive their own fair share of taxes as a result of the activities of these multinationals.

This however led to most of these solutions that were proposed.

Speaking further, Mr Alli said the way the global minimum tax framework is expected to work is that they’re expected to set a benchmark effective tax rate of 15 percent.

If there is any multinational that has its operations in any jurisdiction that are signed on to this agreement if the effective tax rate in that jurisdiction is lower than the 15%, you’re going to see a situation whereby either the home country of the parent company is then forced to pay the
equivalent tax in such a way that, that jurisdiction if you look at the global effective tax rate it is still that 15%.

Mr Alli added that with the way countries are trying to generate revenue, multinationals have to plan, strategise and structure out how they intend to go about their entities.