THE Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) went tough yesterday with its officials storming two foreign companies in Abuja said to have defaulted in tax payment. The FIRS officials carted away the companies� accounts books and computers in a bid to enforce compliance.
FIRS�s Head of Investigation and Intelligence Division, Ms. Sorufa Seghosime, said the raid became necessary because the companies refused to pay their taxes and that several letters to them were rebuffed.
Her words: �They were not able to provide those documents for us to assess them. That is why we have decided to raid the place and cart away the books of the companies to be able to determine the amount of taxes they should have paid which they failed to pay.
�We have written several letters to them and they have not responded. They treated the revenue authorities as if they were no authorities to reckon with and the Chairman of the FIRS will not take kindly to this. That is why she ordered that the raid be carried out immediately.
�We are willing to treat the tax payers as a kings but those of them who are not complying are criminals and they should be treated as such. And that is the message.”